Vice President Biden admitted Thursday that the Obama administration "screwed up" the first iteration of the contraception mandate that has enraged Catholics and evangelical voters.
Biden, who is Catholic, told a crowd at Iowa State University Thursday that the the second version of the rule is "where it should have been in the first place."
"The conscience clause is being honored in its literal sense," Biden said, according to
The Hill. "What is happening now is that we have been able to provide what was hard to set up — it got screwed up in the first iteration — in that any hospital, no matter where it is, no matter who runs it, profit or non-profit, religious-based or otherwise, has to provide insurance to their employees like everybody else does," Biden said.
His comments come the same day the Senate voted 51-48 Thursday to kill a controversial amendment that would weaken the administration's mandate.
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"The fact of the matter is, the ultimate resolution to this problem is where it should have been in the first place," the vice president said. "I was the one that was tasked to meet with the National Conference of Bishops, and others and Cardinal [Tim] Dolan, to talk about this."
But the vice president didn’t calm Dolan.
“While there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them,” said Dolan, the president of the National Conference.
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