Perhaps Notre Dame has realized that the people are ahead of the Church here.  Practicing Catholics who accept the Church's teaching on birth control are few and far between and it has been that way since the late 60's and usually without any fanfare.  They do not accept the teaching and reject the dogmatic foundation that the Church has based its teaching on.  This is not and cannot be put into the issue of abortion.  The stiffneckedness of the Church here has caused a lot of loss of practicing Catholics and if we could be honest, it is part of the reason that so few under 35 are seen in Church.