This is not surprising, given the American people's preference to prevent government from infringing on religious rights. This attitude is older than the republic, going back to the Mayflower.

Still, perhaps the fact that a majority opposes Obama's intrusion into an individual's conscience is surprising in this age when religion is seen by the liberal elites as a negative and they portray deeply held beliefs in mass media as either primitive or evil:

Rasmussen:

Half of voters do not agree with the Obama administration's action forcing Catholic institutions to pay for birth control measures that they morally oppose. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the government should require a church or religious organization to provide contraceptives for women even if it violates their deeply held beliefs. Fifty percent (50%) disagree and oppose such a requirement that runs contrary to strong beliefs, while 10% more are undecided.

Remind me to take that 39% by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. Today, it's contraception. What will it be tomorrow? The government mandating that you violate your conscience or your most personal beliefs over something else? To believe there is no slippery slope here is to ignore history and reality.

This is dangerous territory that Obama has entered and we ignore it at our peril.