It’s about the dread fear that there’s a woman out there somewhere who is making her own decisions about her own reproduction!

So, the Obama Administration decides that though churches will not be required to provide for birth control in the insurance that they provide, church affiliated organizations like hospitals will. After all, such organizations hire people of many faiths. Why should they be denied access to health services just because their employer has moral qualms about the nature of that care? Should employers also require circumcision or that their employees only purchase God approved food? After all, a majority of Americans, including a majority of Catholics and mainline Protestants, believe that contraceptives should be available through insurance programs.

Regardless, the President then negotiates a compromise in which church based organizations are no longer required to pay for the contraception package, but employees will still be able to get a contraception benefit through side plans offered by the insurance company. The insurance company will provide these benefits because it’s cheaper than paying for a baby. The religious group wins. Women win. Democracy in action!

Until you read to the bottom of this article in the New York Times.

Even the archbishop offered, initially, a grudging acknowledgment that it was “a first step in the right direction” although the bishops later said that Mr. Obama’s fix “raises serious moral concerns.”

“serious moral concerns?” What serious moral concerns? You guys don’t have to provide the benefit.

But women can still get access to the benefit. That’s the point. Somewhere out there, there is a woman who is able to make up her own mind about how she spends her weekend, how she enjoys her body, how she shares in that enjoyment, when she starts a family and how big that family gets. This drives the religious right crazy.

It’s not that some religious organizations are offended by a state mandate requiring them to provide a benefit that they morally oppose. The problem is that contraception exists and women have power over their own reproductiona power traditionally held by men and by churches.