Sebelius Surprised By Outrage On Birth Control

The Secretary of Health and Human Services expressed surprise today over the reasoning behind a multi-state lawsuit filed that includes Ohio as well as Catholic groups. They oppose the mandate for free birth control under the new health care act. Kathleen Sebelius made her comments today as she toured the construction project at the OSU Medical Center. The facility received a $100 million grant through the Affordable Care Act, that some call government overreach. Wearing hard hats, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius joined OSU president Gordon Gee, and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown for a close up look at what will be the new radiation oncology center at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University. Sebelius praised the expansion effort that she says will keep this country a leader in biomedical research and improve health care. Sebelius downplayed the outrage by religious groups and the states’ lawsuits filed challenging the Obama administration’s new contraceptive regulation. “Well, we’re not even sure what they’re challenging since there isn’t a structure yet I think their effort may be either behind the times or a little bit ahead of the times. But since they haven’t even seen what the proposal is, it’s a little odd time to bring forward a challenge," says Sebelius. Sebelius says there needs to be patience. “When we announced the original policy we always said there would be a year of implementation reaching out to stakeholders, and what the President said is let’s speed up that year, let’s announce a step going forward and we’ll be promulgating a rule in the very near future," says Sebelius. The Medical project expansion has created 5,000 construction jobs and is expected to produce 10,000 full-time jobs when it’s completed in 2014.