Mr. Gaspar obfuscates the point in his March 2 “Viewpoint” column.  He would swing the weight of women’s rights like a medieval mace in order to beat the Church back into the Dark Ages, where it becomes an easy target to malign and calumniate.  (This would be interesting to explore; at a glance, I would offer that Thomas Aquinas could express a better argument in sighs than Gaspar has in this column).

Let’s be honest – whether the “extremist” Republicans or the “extremist” Catholics want to turn back the clock is irrelevant.  The present issue isn’t about imposing one’s morality or favorite historical era on others.  No – a woman working for a Catholic hospital could still get the morning-after pill, and a man could be sterilized though he teaches at a Catholic university.  They simply wouldn’t have the direct or indirect financial support of the Catholic Church to do so. Seems fair, doesn’t it?

There is the truly humorous accusation that “approximately 450 men…are trying to impose their beliefs on the entire country…”  Listen, if it were only the Catholic bishops who were complaining, this would only make headlines in the newspapers they publish.  If, instead, some portion of the 68.5 million American Catholics are complaining – not to mention religious leaders and adherents of many names, and people who have read the Bill of Rights – then you might expect the kind of national outcry we are witnessing.

The point is the right to free practice of religion, and it is the current administration (with Mr. Gaspar’s support) which is imposing.