“Religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy.” Catholics in the Washington, D.C., area heard those ominous words from their archbishop read during Masses last Sunday. With similar statements echoing through churches around the country, the Republican candidates for president have taken up the cry.

The most recent cause of the bishops’ alarm: the Obama administration’s regulations under the health-care law requiring religiously affiliated entities to provide free sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that cause abortions, to their employees and, in the case of Catholic universities, their students. It’s a decision that’s politically baffling as the president heads into a tough election in which the Catholic vote could be critical.

Four years ago, Barack Obama won the Catholic vote – which is about a quarter of the electorate and swings back and forth in presidential elections, usually going with the winner. But he won it only because he had such overwhelming support from Hispanics; he lost non-Hispanic Catholics. The way things are going this year, Obama could be endangering himself even with Hispanics by courting such full-throated opposition from the hierarchy.