Planned Parenthood launches TV ad applauding birth-control mandate

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund launched a TV ad Wednesday that praises the Obama administration for sticking to its requirement that insurance plans cover birth control without co-pays or deductibles starting this year.

The final regulation, announced two weeks ago, created an uproar because it forces religiously affiliated hospitals and universities that serve the broader public to comply within one year. Many of those institutions already cover birth control, and a majority of women told pollsters they approve of the no-cost mandate.

Republicans, however, slammed the mandate as an assault on religious freedom, even though it exempts churches, synagogues and other houses of worship.

“President Obama and [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius stood strong to make sure all women — no matter where they work — will have access to birth control without a co-pay, saving them hundreds of dollars,” the ad states. “Thank President Obama and Secretary Sebelius. Tell them to keep protecting the birth control women count on.”

The ad will air in key media markets in Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

It comes after the birth-control issue made its way into the GOP presidential primary, when the two front-runners brought it up in their post-election speeches Tuesday evening in Florida.

“President Obama orders religious organizations to violate their conscience,” Mitt Romney said before vowing to “defend religious liberty and overturn regulations that trample on our first freedom.”

And Newt Gingrich promised to put an end to what he called the Obama administration’s “war on the Catholic church” and overturn the president’s “anti-religious” policies through an executive order.

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