The polling, done by the Public Religion Research Institute, shows that 73 percent of Democrats agree that employers should be required to offer health plans that cover contraception at no cost.

Sixty-two percent of women agreed with that statement, 58 percent of Catholics agreed.

Fifty-seven percent of all voters agreed “that women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women.”

Fifty-three percent of Catholic voters agreed “that women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women.”

The question of whether religious institutions should be required to provide health insurance plans that cover contraceptives has been very controversial and has led to the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Senate that would completely strip the Affordable Care Act of the requirement that contraception be required in health plans at all, by allowing any business owner to claim an exemption due to their personal beliefs.

[In… USA Today, Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote that they want any business or corporation to be able to refuse birth control coverage benefit to their employees.

“The Rubio-Manchin bill would allow any business or corporation, on the basis of personal religious belief or moral conviction, to take away birth control coverage from their employees, said Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“That’s not right. It should not be left up to a boss’s personal beliefs whether his employees should be allowed birth control coverage.

“Birth control is basic health care and women should have access to birth control, no matter where they work. That’s why a majority of Americans, including Catholics, support the Obama administration’s birth control benefit.

“The Obama administration’s birth control benefit already includes an expansive refusal exemption, allowing approximately 335,000 churches and houses of worship to refuse to provide birth control for their employees,” she wrote in a prepared statement.

The PRRI polling also revealed that Mitt Romney’s stance in favor of eliminating the birth control benefit from health plans could cost him votes in a general election.

Forty percent of all voters said they are less likely to vote for Romney because he has pledged to eliminate the benefit that gives women birth control coverage without a co-pay. Just 23 percent said it made them more likely to vote for him.

Forty-six percent of Catholic voters say they are less likely to vote for Romney, while 28 percent said it made them more likely to vote for him.

The White House announced last month that it was standing by its decision to require that insurance providers — with the exception of religious employers — cover birth control without co-payments. Instead of giving in to requests that all objectors be able to opt out, the feds gave groups a one-year extension to meet the mandate. Since the announcement, the Obama administration has received a barrage of criticism from religious (mostly Catholic) leaders who consider such a mandate an affront to religious freedom.

While Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has publicly stood by the decision and said that such accusations are false, the White House does not sound as resolute.

According to the New York Times:

David Axelrod, who serves as a top adviser to Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program that the president would “look for a way” to address the vocal opposition from Catholic groups who say the rule forces them to violate their religious beliefs against contraception.

“We certainly don’t want to abridge anyone’s religious freedoms, so we’re going to look for a way to move forward that both provides women with the preventative care that they need and respects the prerogatives of religious institutions,” Mr. Axelrod said.

Religious Americans, overall, are supportive of the federal decision. Polling released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that a majority of Catholics think employers should be required to provide health care plans that cover birth control at no cost.

According to the survey:

• A majority (55%) of Americans agree that “employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost.” Four-in-ten (40%) disagree with this requirement.
• There are major religious, generational and political divisions:
• Roughly 6-in-10 Catholics (58%) believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception.
• Among Catholic voters, support for this requirement is slightly lower at 52%.
• Only half (50%) of white Catholics support this requirement, compared to 47% who oppose it.

• Among other religious Americans, 61% of religiously unaffiliated Americans believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception, compared to only half (50%) of white mainline Protestants and less than 4-in-10 (38%) white evangelical Protestants.
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Democrats, a slim majority (51%) of political Independents and less than 4-in-10 (36%) of Republicans agree that employer health care coverage should include contraception at no cost.
• Younger Americans are much more supportive of the requirement. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Millennials (age 18-29) agree that employer health care coverage should include contraception at no cost, compared to 4-in-10 (40%) seniors (age 65+).
• Women are significantly more likely than men to agree that employers should be required to provide health care plans that cover contraception (62% vs. 47% respectively).

An effort by some religious groups to frame this controversy as a religious freedom issue has been effective, so far. A week ago, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill that would roll back the federal decision. The bill is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Twenty-two co-sponsors have already signed onto Rubio’s measure.

Catholics for Choice, a Catholic group that supports reproductive rights, says that the bishops and Catholic leaders fighting the decision are not speaking for all Catholics.

“Too often, religious voices are written off when it comes to support for reproductive rights issues,” Jon O’Brien, the group’s president, wrote in a recent letter. “Some of the strongest supporters for family planning are in the religious community. We know that the vast majority of all American women use and support access to family planning, including 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women. The loudest voices in the Catholic community are those of the priests and bishops who know that they are being ignored when it comes to their teachings on family planning. They may be the loudest, but we know they also represent a tiny minority of Catholics.”

According to research conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, about “98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptive methods banned by the church.”

“I was stunned to find out that Komen announced it had decided to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which is the largest provider of women’s health care in the country,” DeGette said. “I was pleased when they reversed that decision. But I am concerned about how Komen is making its decisions.”

DeGette explained that she has had concerns about Komen decision-making for a while and that its perilous up-and-down journey through some of the murkier reaches of the abortion-politics swamp this week demonstrated confusion at the heart of the organization.

“As the attacks on Planned Parenthood [in Congress] revved up last year, Komen was touting the fact that it didn’t support stem cell research, even though they know stem cell research shows great potential to treat breast cancer.”

DeGette elaborated that thought in a release sent out minutes ago.

I have grave concerns that last fall, seemingly during the same time they decided to change [the funding policy to cut off Planned Parenthood], Komen also enacted a new policy of refusing to fund the pursuit of lifesaving ethical embryonic stem cell research (ESC), despite a history of recognizing its great potential. Given the massive resources of their organization and the great potential of ESC [to bolster] breast cancer treatment and [the search for] cures, it is deeply disturbing that Komen has turned its back on this research because of the same political pressures that led them to the original Planned Parenthood decision.

A politically-motivated grant process has no place in the pursuit of life-saving screenings, treatments, and research.

DeGette has long been an advocate for stem cell research and re-introduced her Stem Cell Research Advancement Act last year. The act passed the House and Senate years ago but fell victim to a George W. Bush veto. The legislation would establish a more permanent legal framework in which scientists could conduct stem cell research without being subject to the start-and-stop political pressures that shape life on Capitol Hill.

DeGette said she was “very glad” that Colorado’s Komen affiliates “stood up for science-based care” when they asked to be excluded from — and when Aspen Komen rejected altogether– the ban on funding Planned Parenthood and did so based on the statistically proven vital work Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has done over the years to detect and head-off breast cancer among thousands of Coloradans with severely limited health care options.

DeGette said the Komen story this week was a wake-up call.

“I can’t tell you, we had such an outcry. My website and Facebook accounts were just full of messages,” she said.

“My daughter is 22 and she said this was the first time in her life she donated to Planned Parenthood. People need to be assured this major organization [Komen] is making science-based decisions.

DeGette said it was clear this week’s funding flap was part of a larger messaging battle.

“You know I sit on the Stearns committee doing the investigation into Planned Parenthood,” DeGette said, referring to the Planned Parenthood audit called by Florida anti-abortion Rep. Cliff Stearns and based on a mostly debunked Americans United for Life report on alleged Planned Parenthood misdeeds and corruption. The Stearns investigation was the reason Komen initially gave for throwing Planned Parenthood off its funding rolls.

“Listen, some Republicans in Congress have had a vendetta against Planned Parenthood for years, but 97 percent of what that organization does is well-women visits. For many of those women all over the country these are the only type of annual checkups they receive. There is no public tax money being spent on abortion and abortion is a small part of Planned Parenthood’s mission.

“I have been saying for years that these lawmakers don’t just oppose abortion. They oppose birth control and disease prevention for women. It’s the 21st century and we’re arguing about birth control?

“A lot of Americans woke up this week and said, ‘wow, the GOP agenda really is extreme. It’s about opposing contraception and mammography.’

“We want Komen to get back to science-based funding decisions”

DeGette is the head of the congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and has been a lead critic of the attacks on Planned Parenthood launched on Capitol Hill this year. Together with California Rep. Henry Waxman, she denounced the Stearns investigation as “unwarranted” and as a legalistic cover to “harass and shut down an organization simply because Republicans disagree with the work that it does.”

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“We’re so grateful to our Aspen and Denver Komen affiliates,” Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Spokesperson Monica McCafferty told the Colorado Independent. “The [directors] here stuck their necks out and stood by us and the national organization followed their lead. They turned the lens on the national leaders and on their explanations about the new policies and those explanations just didn’t seem very sincere.”

Komen seemed overwhelmed by reaction to its new funding policy. The decision lighted up the mediasphere and drew strong responses from national political leaders even as Komen executives floundered in articulating exactly how the policy came to be formulated, how it would be applied and how it would further the fight against breast cancer.

As news reports piled one on top of the other over the last 48 hours, it seemed increasingly clear that the new Komen policy was the work of recently hired hardline anti-abortion executive and board personnel. The spotlight fell on Senior Vice President Karen Handel and Board Director Jane Abraham, the former an anti-Planned Parenthood Georgia gubernatorial candidate and the latter a director at the anti-Planned Parenthood Susan B Anthony List. The two seemed likely to be leading efforts internally to push the same line of anti-Planned Parenthood arguments that have shaped partisan proposals on Capitol Hill and in state capitol chambers across the country this year, proposals that were largely formulated and promoted by anti-abortion activist organizations such as Americans United for Life and the Susan B. Anthony List.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women`s lives,” Komen said in a release Friday.

“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

The foundation said it planned to update its new funding policies to “ensure that politics has no place in our grant process.”

McCafferty said the turn of events should act as a corrective to the activist message campaigns that have worked to demonize Planned Parenthood by distorting its mission and that have resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars that otherwise would have been spent more effectively on women’s health.

“It’s definitely a joyful moment for women,” she said of the reversal. “The outpouring of support from people around the country has been overwhelming. It demonstrates the way our country is behind the Planned Parenthood mission.”

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“The [Aspen Komen] decision to break from its national office over a poorly thought-out policy sends a strong signal about the importance of doing what is best for our communities,” PPRM President and CEO Vicki Cowart said in a release sent out late Thursday night. “Planned Parenthood and Komen share a common goal and vision– and that is to advance women’s health. We know people depend on both our organizations to serve and support low income and underinsured or uninsured individuals across our state.”

“We hope [the Aspen decision] sends a strong signal that, when it comes to the issue of women’s health, there is no room for politics,” she said.

Komen’s Denver and Aspen affiliates asked for waivers from the new anti-Planned Parenthood policy, citing the major role played by Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) in battling breast cancer in the state. The national organization granted Denver Komen a waiver but turned down Aspen Komen’s request.

Planned Parenthood cares for roughly 1,000 patients a year in Colorado through Komen funding and has proven enormously effective at detecting breast cancer.

PPRM found nearly 20 percent of all of the cases of breast cancer discovered through Denver Komen spending last year and did so on a relative shoestring, pulling down only 4.3 percent or $125,000 of the $3 million Denver Komen donated to clinics and research centers in the northern Front Range.

Planned Parenthood spokesperson Monica McCafferty told the Glenwood Springs Post Independent last night that Aspen Komen gave PPRM’s Glenwood Springs clinic $40,000 last year for breast-cancer prevention and care and that the clinic used the money to perform 300 breast exams, teach 850 women to do self-examinations, refer about 40 women for mammograms and to help pay for those tests.

The Aspen Komen announcement came as a series of moves that have ignited the politics mediasphere in the wake of news that Komen would withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood nationally. It’s difficult not to see Aspen’s rejection of the new policy as a revolt. The decision, made unanimously by Aspen Komen’s board of directors and announced in ads placed in two local papers, suggests the level of dissent bubbling up within the larger Komen organization to what appears to be a politically motivated decision handed down from leadership who failed to sufficiently consult with local Komen decision-makers familiar with operations on the ground.

Indeed, despite varying rationales given by national Komen representatives for the controversial policy change and assurances that the decision to cut off Planned Parenthood was not tied to this year’s especially fraught anti-abortion anti-Planned Parenthood politics, sources inside Komen are beginning to confirm that the new policy was adopted specifically to cut off Planned Parenthood and was the work of recently hired anti-abortion personnel, including former Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel and Susan B Anthony List Chairman Jane Abraham.

In its advertisement, Aspen Komen said halting funding to Planned Parenthood would be “contrary to its mission.”

In its release on the Aspen announcement, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said it applauded the “brave and courageous move by the Denver and Aspen affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to put women’s health above a politically-motivated decision that would have halted funding breast cancer prevention, screenings, and education at Planned Parenthood health centers in Colorado.”

Nearly two dozen members of the U.S. Senate sent a strongly worded letter to Komen Thursday asking the organization to rethink its decision to distance itself from Planned Parenthood.

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“Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) does important work to educate women about breast cancer and provide screening exams that are critical to early detection,” he wrote in a release. “I applaud Komen’s Denver affiliate for pushing back on their national organization and insisting that they be allowed to continue providing grants to PPRM, which help ensure access to affordable, life-saving services for Colorado women on the Front Range.

“Women’s health should never be used as a political football, and I hope the national organization of Susan G. Komen reverses its decision to end its partnership with Planned Parenthood elsewhere in our state and across the country.”

Staffers earlier said Udall was crafting a response to the Komen news with Colorado Senator Michael Bennet. It’s unclear if Udall and Bennet at this point still plan to pen a letter to Komen together. Colorado’s senators’ staffers told the Colorado Independent the two wanted to directly address news coming out of Colorado, where the two major women’s health organizations, Komen and Planned Parenthood, seemed to be coming to their own agreement.

A group of roughly two dozen U.S. Senators signed onto a letter to the national Komen foundation decrying the decision to pull back crucial support in the battle against breast cancer for what seemed to be clearly partisan political reasons.

Komen’s rationale for the move has shifted in the hours since it made its decision public.

Known for its marketing savvy– this is the group that hosts enormously popular “races for the cure” around the country and that launched the omnipresent pink-ribbon campaign– Komen first said the decision was not tied to this year’s turbo-charged anti-Planned Parenthood abortion politics but was simply the results of new rules governing grantee eligibility, specifically new rules that precluded organizations under investigation from receiving Komen cash.

The congressional investigation that moved Planned Parenthood off Komen funding lists, however, was very much a product of the anti-Planned Parenthood politics that shaped this year’s House Republican agenda. It was launched by anti-abortion Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns and based on a specious and mostly debunked report by anti-abortion group Americans United for Life.

The Komen policy changes seemed transparently motivated by the House investigation, especially in light of the fact that leadership at Komen has recently included strong anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood figures such as Senior Vice President Karen Handel and Komen Advocacy Alliance board member Jane Abraham.

As the Washington Post reported, however, Komen CEO Nancy Brinker just hours ago walked back reference to the Stearns investigation, saying the new funding rules “had very little to do with the ongoing congressional probe” and were based on the fact that not all Planned Parenthood clinics provide mammograms.

“We have decided not to fund, wherever possible, pass-through grants. We were giving them money, they were sending women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can directly fund mammograms.”

Northern Colorado Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains clinics will continue to draw funds, as will clinics in Texas and Southern California, she said, because “they are the only provider” of breast health services in the areas they serve.

Denver Komen gave Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains $125,000 last year, or 4.3 percent of the nearly $3 million Denver Komen spent fighting breast cancer here, but Komen got big bang for those bucks. Planned Parenthood detected nearly 20 percent of all of the cases of breast cancer discovered through Denver Komen spending.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains serves patients whose health-care options are severely limited. Roughly 84 percent of PPRM patients have no health insurance and 62 percent live at or below the federal poverty line.

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The letter comes on the heels of news that roughly two dozen of Udall and Bennet’s colleagues in the Senate have signed on to a letter strongly urging Komen, the high-profile marketing firm behind the breast-cancer pink-ribbon campaign, to reverse the decision it announced this week to cease funding Planned Parenthood breast cancer screening and education efforts.

The Senate letter has reportedly drawn support from a wide spectrum of Democrats, including moderates like Montana’s John Tester. It decried the Komen decision as the latest front in the partisan political battle launched against Planned Parenthood this year that has driven moves inside and outside of government to strip funds from the reproductive healthcare and abortion provider.

“It would be tragic if any woman– let alone thousands of women– lost access to these potentially life-saving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the letter reads.

The support the letter has garnered reflects the increasingly high-level pushback Komen has received this week. News outlets have reported the intense back-and-forth that erupted in the wake of the announcement as it unfolded and as it played out on the internet, where supporters and detractors have waged furious social media messaging battles.

Denver Komen is one of select foundation affiliates across the nation that have asked for a waiver from the controversial decision to cut Planned Parenthood funds and has made the case in its public statements for its continuing to fund Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM), pointing to the vital role the embattled organization plays in fighting breast cancer here.

PPRM provides distinctly cost-effective service for Komen. Its Front Range clinics were responsible for 19 percent of all the breast cancer detected through Denver Komen funding last year and it received only $125,000 or 4.3 percent of the $3 million Denver Komen awarded to nonprofits spread across the region, from Douglas County just south of Denver north to the Wyoming border.

Komen also notes that the state budget this year was slashed for the Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program provided by the Women’s Wellness Connection Program, leaving nearly 5,500 women in Colorado without access to services and opening the door to nearly 90 cases of cancer. In such an environment, Komen suggested, cutting off Planned Parenthood funding would be irresponsible.

There is no word yet on whether members of the U.S. House will weigh in formally on the Komen funding question. Calls to members of Colorado’s delegation were not immediately returned.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette is the head of the Pro-Choice Caucus and has been a lead critic of the often specious attacks on Planned Parenthood launched on Capitol Hill this year.

Indeed, although Komen has said its decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood was not motivated by abortion politics, it cited as the cause a controversial congressional investigation launched by Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns into twenty years of Planned Parenthood finances. Komen said that its new grantee criteria preclude funding any organizations under investigation.

Yet the Stearns audit of Planned Parenthood was spurred mainly by anti-abortion activists working off of a largely discredited Americans United for Life report brimming with lurid accusations that, for example, Planned Parenthood abetted human trafficking and child prostitution operations.

DeGette, together with California Rep. Henry Waxman, denounced the congressional investigation as “unwarranted” and as a legalistic cover to “harass and shut down an organization simply because Republicans disagree with the work that it does.”

“We are aware of no predicate that would justify this sweeping and invasive request to Planned Parenthood,” Waxman and DeGette wrote in a letter to Stearns last September as the investigation was being proposed. “It would be an abuse of the oversight process if you are now using the Committee’s investigative powers to harass Planned Parenthood again. Your fervent ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood does not justify launching this intrusive investigation.”

In a Thursday call with reporters, Komen CEO Nancy Brinker walked back reference to the Stearns investigation. The Washington Post reports Brinker said the decision not to continue funding Planned Parenthood “had very little to do with the ongoing congressional probe” but was based primarily on the fact that some Planned Parenthood clinics do not provide mammograms.

“We have decided not to fund, wherever possible, pass-through grants. We were giving them money, they were sending women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can directly fund mammograms.”

Northern Colorado Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains clinics will continue to draw funds, as will clinics in Texas and Southern California, Binker said, because “they are the only provider” of breast health services in the areas they serve.

News outlets and blogs have pointed to the fact that national Komen leadership has been tilted recently by a growing number of hardcore pro-life executives and board members, such as Senior Vice President Karen Handel, who came on last April after running as an anti-Planned Parenthood candidate for governor in Georgia’s Republican primary, and prominent Komen Advocacy Alliance board member Jane Abraham, who is also general chairman of the anti-abortion lobbying organization Susan B. Anthony List.

Leadership at Susan B. Anthony includes former arch-social conservative Colorado Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. The group has played a key role in the effort to “defund” Planned Parenthood nationwide. This year it kept a running state-by-state scorecard tracking the roughly $60,399,000 in federal and state funding stripped from Planned Parenthood affiliates in eight states.

“Our efforts during the federal budget fight gave Planned Parenthood a black eye,” the organization boasted.

The Atlantic reported today that sources inside Komen are beginning to confirm that the new policy cited to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood– whether ultimately tied to on-site mammogram services, congressional investigations or something else– was adopted specifically to cut off Planned Parenthood and that that effort was spearheaded by anti-abortion personnel led by Handel.

Ties among Komen executives and Congressional Republicans are sure to be scrutinized in the coming days.

Komen board member Jane Abraham’s husband, Spencer Abraham, for example, may draw looks. He was Energy Secretary under George W. Bush and last year joined Republicans in the House, including House Energy Committee member and Planned Parenthood investigator Cliff Stearns, in denouncing the government program that guaranteed loans to Solyndra solar panel company. Abraham’s law firm recently teamed with Florida law firm Roetzel & Andress to form DC-based lobby shop Abraham & Roetzel, which has offices in Columbus, Ohio and Tallahassee, Florida.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains told the Colorado Independent this week that the Denver Komen affiliate has been a “strong advocate” for the work Planned Parenthood does in Colorado.

More than 80 percent of PPRM patients have no health insurance and 62 percent live at or below the federal poverty line.

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According to Walsh,

Maddow asked Tyler about some of Gingrich’s racially coded attacks on President Obama, and Tyler went off. He began by comparing the Republican and Democratic platforms of 1856 and finding the Democratic platform was racist, and that was about the last true thing he said. From claiming Democrats “abort [black] babies” to charging that African Americans need the movie “Red Tails” because they don’t have any positive role models, it was the GOP id unleashed.

Tyler said that the Democratic Party should get away from “race baiting,” because Democratic policies have been worse for the African-American community.

In the past couple years, there has been a concerted effort among anti-abortion activists to link abortion to racist aims. Groups have been touting the “Black Genocide” conspiracy in an effort to convince African-American communities to oppose abortion.

Watch the segment:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

According to numbers made public by Komen this week, Denver Komen gave Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains $125,000 last year, or 4.3 percent of the nearly $3 million Denver Komen spent fighting breast cancer. Yet Planned Parenthood clinics here detected nearly 20 percent of all of the cases of breast cancer discovered through Denver Komen spending, which supports roughly 40 organizations operating clinics, shelters, hospices, research facilities and so on mostly across the northern Front Range but also in Summit, Park and Douglas Counties.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains uses its Komen money overwhelmingly to serve patients whose health-care options are severely limited. As the Denver Post reported yesterday, 84 percent of PPRM patients have no health insurance and 62 percent live at or below the federal poverty line.

In deciding not to preclude future funding of the local Planned Parenthood chapter, Denver Komen has offered a small counter narrative to the dramatic news yesterday that the national Komen organization has decided against any further Planned Parenthood funding pending the conclusion of a highly charged congressional audit that came as part of an historic assault on the women’s reproductive health and abortion provider. The audit was launched last year by social-conservatives in the Republican-controlled House who were spurred to act by anti-abortion organizations, mainly the Susan B Anthony List Americans United for Life.

National spokespeople for Komen dismissed arguments that the organization had succumbed to political pressure, citing only the fact that Planned Parenthood is under congressional investigation and that, according to new grantee criteria, organizations under investigation can not be considered for funding.

It’s unclear why Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains doesn’t fall within that criteria.

PPRM Spokesperson Monica McCafferty told the Colorado Independent that, whatever the reasoning, the fact is “Denver Komen has been a strong advocate” for her organization.

In considering the national news, Mother Jones reported perhaps another more direct site of pressure that may be shaping Komen decisions regarding Planned Parenthood.

The magazine points to Komen senior vice president Karen Handel, who was appointed last April after running as an outspoken anti-Planned Parenthood candidate for governor in Georgia’s Republican primary. Handel now runs Komen’s federal and state lobbying efforts.

“[S]ince I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood,” Handel wrote in a campaign blog post quoted by Mother Jones, which adds that Handel pledged at the time to eliminate all state funds for breast and cervical cancer screening to the group if she were elected governor.

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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook)

The Hill is reporting that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has introduced a bill that would roll back a recent decision by the Obama administration to require that insurance providers — with the exception of religious employers — cover birth control as a preventive service. Rubio is among a small group of legislators that receives money from a Catholic group that has been opposed to the mandate for some time.

The birth control mandate, which has been championed by women’s health advocates, means that women who have health insurance will not have to pay a co-payment for their birth control. For many women, steep co-payments for birth control have become unaffordable.

One of the most vocal opponents of the decision since it was first announced, the Catholic Church, has said it will continue to fight the decision.

The Hill reports that Rubio has introduced legislation to overturn the decision. According to the publication:

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, S. 2043, would roll back the Department of Health and Human Service’s mandate earlier this month that requires health plans, beginning Aug. 1, to cover birth control without a co-pay or a deductible.

…

Rubio blasted the administration for ignoring people’s right to oppose birth-control coverage on religious grounds.

“The Obama administration’s obsession with forcing mandates on the American people has now reached a new low by violating the conscience rights and religious liberties of our people,” Rubio said.

“Under this president, we have a government that has grown too big, too costly and now even more overbearing by forcing religious entities to abandon their beliefs. This is a common-sense bill that simply says the government can’t force religious organizations to abandon the fundamental tenets of their faith because the government says so.”

The Catholic Advocate PAC was among the many Catholic groups that voiced opposition to the administration’s plans. The group launched ads last October attacking the president for the decision.

A group that is affiliated with Catholic Advocate PAC, the Catholic Advocate Candidate Fund, has ties to Rubio. The group, according to its website, helps “elect pro-life, pro-family candidates through direct support to endorsed candidates, ‘bundled donations’ from members of the Catholic Advocate community that are sent to the candidates, and select independent campaign activities to help turn out the vote for pro-life, pro-family candidates.” Rubio is among the handful of endorsed candidates by the group that receives those bundled donations.