After his opening comments, he President stated his new policy:

"Today, we've reached a decision on how to move forward. Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services -- no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But if a woman's employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -- not the hospital, not the charity -- will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.

"The result will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. Let me repeat: These employers will not have to pay for, or provide, contraceptive services. But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they'll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries."

This means that certain employers who have "a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan" will not fund these services directly. Instead, the insurance plan will cover these services without charge to all women employees.

What does this resolve? Well, to state the matter bluntly, nothing. At the end of the day, this "compromise" will resolve the issue only for those whose conscience can be resolved by an accounting maneuver.

The qualified insurance plans do not print the monies required to cover the birth control services mandated by the administration. They will obtain these funds through the premiums paid by employers -- including those employers with "a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan."

Will this resolve the issue politically? That remains to be seen. As is often the case, what is presented in Washington as a compromise is really not a compromise in any meaningful sense at all. The very fact that groups like Planned Parenthood celebrated the "compromise" indicates that it was not a compromise at all -- just an accounting trick.

There were several very interesting aspects of the president's remarks that should draw close attention.

First, President Obama said that he had earlier promised that "we would spend the next year working with institutions like Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities to find an equitable solution that protects religious liberty and ensures that every woman has access to the care that she needs."

Interestingly, that is not at all what Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said. In her January 20 statement, she said this:

"Nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule."

The secretary ended that portion of her remarks with a final sentence, in which she stated that her department would "continue to work closely with religious groups during this transitional period to discuss their concerns." Secretary Sebelius left no door open for a change in the policy, only a listening ear and "more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule." That is a far cry from what the president described.

Second, the president steadfastly describes this controversy as a Catholic issue, and this is to his political advantage. He spoke of meeting with Catholic leaders and working with Catholic parishes and Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities. He never even mentioned any other church, denomination or religious group.

The president wants to frame this as a Catholic issue, but it is not. The Roman Catholic church is the major religious body that maintains teaching against all forms of artificial birth control, but those moral concerns are not limited to the Catholic church. The mandated coverage would violate the conscience and deepest convictions of millions of American evangelical Christians and their hundreds of schools and institutions which, put together, outnumber the Catholic institutions.

Third, the Obama administration continues to frame the controversy as a concern about "contraception." Millions of Americans naturally think of a contraceptive as a mechanism for preventing the fertilization of the woman's egg. They are unaware that the word has been redefined in medical, pharmacological and political contexts to refer to a mechanism for preventing either fertilization or the successful attachment of the fertilized egg to the uterine wall.

This is not merely a matter of semantics. Any intervention that prevents the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine lining is an abortion. The Obama administration has mandated the inclusion of the so-called "morning after pill" and other forms of "emergency contraception" in qualified plans. Continued...