White House claim that 98% of Catholic women use contraception a ‘damned lie’: Lutheran author

An oft-repeated claim from a White House official about the rate of contraceptive use among Catholics has touched off a firestorm of controversy, with some contending that the statistic is not only irrelevant to the legitimacy of the HHS birth control mandate, but also grossly inaccurate.

Critics of the statistic point out that the study on which it is based was conducted by the research organization founded by Planned Parenthood, and that the study was explicitly designed to include only women who were most likely to use contraception – and excluded those most likely to follow Catholic teaching on the issue.

At issue is a statement posted on the White House blog earlier this month by Cecilia Munoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, defending the Health and Human Service mandate which requires employers to pay for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs on their employee’s health plans.

“According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, most women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, have used contraception,” Munoz wrote. LifeSiteNews