Letter: Abortion controls amount to religious dictatorship

An ongoing political conflict violates our First Amendment’s religion clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

This means that nobody has the right to ram religious beliefs down anyone else’s throat. The problem isn’t that religious folks believe religious teachings. But some teachings instruct followers to force certain doctrines on others. The wealth and political power arising in some religious and political groups enables them to impose religious doctrines on the public.

America is pluralist. Many religious people maintain that embryos and eggs have “no eternal soul.” Many Bible scholars interpret that contraception, sterilization, and abortion are irrelevant to God. Some people agree with those Founding Fathers who adopted Deism: that the Creator is no longer involved in human affairs. And some people are atheist.

The Constitution requires that everyone’s viewpoints must be respected. Therefore, it is not ethical for anybody in or out of government; no employer, college or hospital administrator, politician, judge, clergy, nor anyone else; to control the public’s access to abortion and contraceptive services. To restrict the public’s rights, in any way, distorts America into a religious dictatorship.

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 4:19 AM with the headline "Letter: Abortion controls amount to religious dictatorship."