Throughout the ongoing debate over President Barack Obama's contraceptive mandate, and again on Monday, when Catholic leaders here in St. Louis and nationwide announced anti-mandate lawsuits, one question has surfaced repeatedly among Obama's critics and allies alike: Why choose an election year to pick a fight with the Catholic Church?
The mandate controversy is, after all, the president's own creation. As St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said in a press conference Monday, when explaining why the Archdiocese and Catholic Charities of St. Louis joined 41 other organizations in suing the Obama administration, "The church did not pick this fight or its timing. The federal government did."
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