Obama: It's 'Not Fair' That Catholic Employers Would Deny Women Contraception Coverage (Poll)

Fresh off his Supreme Court health care win, President Barack Obama isn't backing down -- particularly when it comes to the controversial contraceptive mandate. On Monday, he was interviewed by local news anchors from eight television markets across America. During a discussion with WWL-TV in New Orleans, he doubled-down on his stance on the mandate.

(Related: Yikes: Obama Compares Economic Crisis to a Hurricane…During an Interview With a New Orleans Reporter)

Earlier today, we told you about this same interview, during which he used the word "hurricane" to describe the economy (lest we remind you that Karen Swensen, the anchor who conducted the dialogue, is from a locality that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina not all that long ago).

Here's how the dialogue unfolded when it came to contraception, as documented by Mediaite:

...WWL’s Karen Swenson brought along some questions from her viewers, as well.

“(Viewer Michael Varino) describes himself as a Catholic voter and wrote ‘What can you say about a healthcare bill that’ll mandate insurance companies to provide birth control, sterilization, etc. to employees of Catholic universities, hospitals and churches since this goes against the Catholic religion?’” Swenson said. “We know there is compromising language in place. Some say it doesn’t go far enough and that the real, the much bigger issue is religious liberty, not contraception.”

“Yeah. Well it’s absolutely true that religious liberty is critical,” the President replied, before correcting a falsehood that was embedded in the question. “That’s the reason why we exempted churches, we exempted religious institutions.

Obama went on to say that large, religiously-affiliated hospitals or universities that employ non-Catholics and that receive federal money should be covering contraception. He called the notion that a woman would be faced with bearing "the burden and the cost" simply unjust. "That's not fair, Obama proclaimed."

Watch video of the interaction, below (starts around 2:09):

What do you think? Is it "unfair" for religiously-affiliated institutions to deny birth control coverage? Take the poll:

(H/T: Mediaite)