Split on mandate

Americans are split on a federal mandate requiring nearly all employers — including those with religious objections — to provide insurance covering contraception.

The poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life was conducted in February, including the day President Barack Obama changed the mandate by requiring insurers, not religious groups, to offer the coverage.

Of those familiar with the issue (62 percent), 48 percent of respondents support an exemption for religiously affiliated institutions that object to providing contraception coverage; 44 percent said the institutions should provide it.