Two weeks ago the Obama administration issued a Health and Human Services mandate that companies now have to provide access to contraception for their employees.  Seems like a good idea since we have so many unwanted pregnancies these days, right?

Well, no.  .  Immediately the  Catholic Church was appalled and accused the Obama Administration of trampling all over the their religious beliefs.. by forcing them to provide for something the church doesn’t believe in, contraception.

The problem is the fact that approximately 90% of all Catholic women have used contraception at some point in their lives (the same percentage as ALL women by the way).. so if the church is allowed to not honor that obligation, they would be discriminating against Catholic women just because they are Catholic.

The Grand O’l Party – or GOP as most of you know them – jumped all over Obama, for violating the separation of church and state. These are the same people, by the way, that are trying desperately to inject religion into our politics – see “State Santioned Rape” Ultrasound Bill in Virginia.

The problems with this argument is that the Obama administration is actually HONORING the separation of church and state by not giving the Religious organizationsthem an exception.

Think about it. If a religion believes that a woman should be stoned to death for committing adultery, are we supposed to allow that stoning to happen?  Nope. Religious beliefs cannot super-cede the law of the land.  Nobody is forcing these people to use contraception against their free will, they are merely providing for its availability for those that want or need it, regardless of their religious beliefs.

If you allow religion to affect the laws of the land you are in effect allowing religion to MAKE the laws of the land.

If you don’t want to find yourself living in a country where religious leaders tell you what you can and cannot do, then we need to stop allowing religious leaders from writing our laws.