A TRUCE IN THE BATTLE OVER BIRTH CONTROL: But the war isn't over.

• Author: Brown, Elizabeth Nolan
• Position: SEX

TWO NEW RULES concerning employer-sponsored health insurance and contraception coverage, set to take effect in January, will finally allow conscientious objectors to opt out of the now-notorious Obamacare contraception mandate. But the feds shouldn't consider the matter settled until women can buy birth control over the counter.

Under the first new rule--issued jointly by the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Treasury, and Labor--churches, religious orders and auxiliaries, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, nonpublic institutions of higher education, and "other non-governmental employers with religious objections" are allowed to opt out of offering insurance plans that pay for birth control "on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs."

Insurance issuers can also opt out if all of the companies they provide plans to are exempted. And individuals can opt out of being insured by a plan that includes contraception coverage to the extent that their employer and insurance issuer are willing to provide another option.

Under a second new rule, all of the above organizations save publicly traded businesses can get an exception based on "non-religious moral convictions opposing services covered by the contraceptive mandate."

Freedom of conscience is good news. The bad news is that HHS et al. estimate the changes will leave anywhere between 6,400 and 127,000 women without coverage for some or all forms of contraception. That's an undesirable result, even if...