Here is the study that is used to make the claim that 98% of Catholic women use contraception >>> http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/Religion-and-Contraceptive-Use.pdf.
The Guttmacher Institute was founded in 1968 as the "Center for Family Planning Program Development", a semi-autonomous division of ThePlanned Parenthood Federation of America. Keep that in mind when reading their study and their motives for misleading people.
"This report was based on data from the 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). Designed and administered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the NSFG produces national estimates of factors affecting pregnancy, including sexual activity and contraceptive use. Data were gathered using in-person interviews with 7,356 women aged 15–44 between June 2006 and December 2008. All data used for this analysis were weighted, and the findings are nationally representative." Let us assume that the CDC did not have political motivations in collecting or massaging the data. I have not found the exact data set used from www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg.htm, but I have found a variety of studies with a different number of women included. This ranges from near 7,356 (the amount in the Guttmacher study) to 61,561. This makes me question if Guttmacher excluded women from their dataset or if they based their study on the CDC study, but conducted it themselves. If the former is the case, an explanation on their part is needed as to why some were excluded (Please contact me if you have the actual data source Guttmacher used.) If it is the latter, then there is clearly a sample bias. How great the sample bias is depends on where and how (Planned Parenthood office, independent facility, over the phone, etc.) the interviews were conducted.
My understanding of polls is that many people do not like taking polls regarding sex. Those most likely to take a poll regarding sex are those that are more likely to be engaged in the activity. So there is a bias here too. Depending on if Guttmacher used only CDC data or if they did their own study based on CDC's study, the degree of bias can be quite significant.
"A Religious affiliation is based on an item that asked women for their current affiliation." One would hope that people would not lie on this question to skew the results. This includes women who are Catholic by name and do not attend Mass and women who had contracepted and later converted to Catholicism without contracepting after conversion.
The 98% figure of Catholic women using contraception is that they have had sex and that they contracepted at least once. First, this excludes those who have not had sex! That 98% number needs to come down. Secondly, just using contraception once in their lifetime includes a respondent into 98% group. The better question is whether they are currently using contraception when they have sex.
Some people have been errantly advised by a priest that contraception is not immoral. This may have been an honest mistake by the priest or just opinion of theirs on what the church teaches. Shame on the priest if it is the latter. Regardless of why the errant advise was given, through no fault of the woman she did the immoral thing of using contraception. Some even went as far as having a sterilization surgery, which is quite costly to reverse and might not even work. Through no fault of these women, they are still contracepting.
The study excludes women outside of 15-44 years of age. While this might be useful in studies regarding contraception, to use that to make a statement about all women in a religious group would be erroneous.
In regards to the part of the study involving choice of contraception, they first make an unsubstantiated claim,"Most sexually active women who do not want to become pregnant...practice contraception." The data is certainly available through the CDC to show this, but nothing is shown in this report (this is another reason I question how the data was collected). The preference of contraception method is among those not trying to get pregnant.
The 98% figure is made out to be representative of all Catholic women. It is representative of the lifelong sex choices that a specific age group of Catholic women that have had sex made at least once in their life have made rather than what all Catholic women are doing today.
In regard to the 98% being used to support forcing religious organization to go against their conscience, regardless of what the percentage of Catholic's who do not follow the teachings of the Church, there are some (probably a large majority) that follow the teachings of the Church in this regard. By forcing the Church or any related organization to provide this coverage forces someone to do something against their moral conscience. This applies with both religious and non-religious employers. No matter how great the numer is, the government has no right to force someone to do something against their moral conscience!
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