Rushing to end a political uproar, President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all, The Associated Press has learned. The administration instead will demand that insurance companies will be the ones directly responsible for providing free contraception.

Democrats are deeply divided over President Barack Obama#39;s new rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide insurance for free birth control to their employees amid fresh signs that the administration was scrambling for a way out.

US Republicans on Wednesday escalated their election-year attacks on President Barack Obama in a feud over health insurance coverage of birth control, accusing him of a quot;systematicquot; assault on religion.

President Barack Obama’s nominees for key positions at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Comptroller of the Currency are at risk of becoming collateral damage in an escalating fight between Senate Democrats and Republicans.

WASHINGTON — Defending President Barack Obama’s signature health care overhaul, the administration is urging the Supreme Court to uphold the contentious heart of the law, the requirement that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty. The administration filed a written submission with the court Friday describing the 2010 law as an appropriate response to a “crisis in the national health care ...