So apparently Honda thinks that the A/C needs to be on ALL the time when the defroster is on, as you are unable to turn it off while in defrost mode....
Until you do
this
Works on 7th and 8th gen civics. Defroster works better with A/C on, but if you are just trying to keep it from fogging back up sometimes you don't need the A/C on to dry the air out.