He who takes the Catholic vote takes the election. But guess who .... may not.

Constant readers of this column already know that President Obama’s Health and Human Services department (HHS) will soon require Catholic organizations to provide contraception services within their healthcare plans, and pay a fine if they don’t.

The implications of this policy were noted by Atlanta archbishop Wilton D. Gregory: “As a result, unless the (HHS) rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).”

And who are these employees? People at Catholic hospitals, schools, and Catholic Charities, the largest private sector social services provider in the United States. This should make for an interesting train wreck.

Administration officials have responded strangely.  Spokesman Jay Carney said: "While there are those who take issue with the decision … American women will have access to preventive services, as they should.”

Item one: Taking issue? That's his best characterization? Item two: does he seriously mean to imply that American women would not have birth-prevention services if Catholic hospitals didn't offer them?

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in USA Today justified this move by arguing that “virtually all” women use contraception at some point .... Really? Does she realize that something "virtual" does not actually exist?  And, where are her statistics on this point?  

However, reseach indicates that more than half of Catholics not only disagree with Sebelius, but they are really, really angry.

In 2008, Obama took fifty-two percent of the Catholic vote. Former Reagan official Doug Kmiec, who originally endorsed Obama, as resigned his ambassadorship to Malta in protest of the State Department’s stifling his religious initiatives.  If there one was a pro-life congressional Democrat, they were excluded from Obamacare negotiations. 

In short, it's been a bumpy ride between Obama and his Catholic voters.

There are seventy-seven million Catholics in the United States, and they come out to a quarter of the electorate.  He who takes the Catholic vote takes the election.

If these numbers do not improve, it won't be hard to guess who does not take the votes.