NPR Touts Planned Parenthood-Commissioned Poll on Contraception Mandate

Is a Planned Parenthood poll really newsworthy? On Tuesday, NPR spotlighted a PPP poll commissioned by the abortion giant which found that a majority apparently supports a federal government mandate on birth control that violates the religious liberty of Catholic institutions. The network also trumpeted how "the poll...suggested that Mitt Romney...could pay a price at the polls" for opposing the mandate.

Writer Frank James began his article for NPR.org, "Poll: Majority Of Voters Support Birth-Control Mandate," by pointing out that the ObamaCare regulation was "controversial." But he didn't acknowledge that the poll was "done on behalf of Planned Parenthood" until the second paragraph, and left out any kind of ideological label for the left-wing organization.

After his line about Gov. Romney, he added that the Republican presidential candidate "like Catholic bishops, has argued that the decision is counter to First Amendment religious freedoms." James devoted the rest of his article to regurgitating the poll results, and cited PPP director Tom Jensen, who claimed that the controversy "really has the potential to hurt him [Romney] with some of these key groups that could go either way, independents, Catholics...It doesn't really square with the image Romney might want to project in the general election as sort of being a moderate on social issues. So he's sort of playing with fire here."

However, PPP's poll question completely omitted the religious liberty component to the controversy, which is certainly helpful to their client Planned Parenthood, who completely brushes aside such concerns in their support for the HHS mandate, and even started a national TV ad campaign praising the President for it:

Some people say that institutions such as Catholic hospitals and universities should be exempted from the requirement that health plans cover prescription birth control with no additional out of pocket costs, because contraception runs counter to Catholic teachings. Other people say that women of all faiths who are employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women. Which view do you agree with -- Catholic hospitals and universities should be exempted from covering prescription birth control, or that women who are employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women?

This is the first time that James has shown a pro-ObamaCare slant. Back in September 2011, the NPR writer drew a comparison between President Obama's rally cry to pass his "jobs bill" with Jesus entrusting St. Peter to "feed my sheep."