Contraception is a private matter

Responding to John Connor’s letter of Feb. 18, I did read Ms. Parker’s column but missed Ms. Froma Harrop’s. Unfortunately, the interjection of religion in the current political debate has become disheartening. Start with the Koman decision and the woman behind it, Ms. Karen Handel, a failed candidate for the Georgia governer’s mansion. Her platform was demolishing Planned Parenthood, period. What came afterward was the contraception brouhaha, starting with the president’s decision and then compromise and then the Catholic Church’s reaction. The church knows full well that women have and still rely in birth control for family planning and health issues.

Now the people of this country, and especially women, have to stand up for themselves and tell religious leaders to stay out of our bedrooms and doctors offices. What decisions we make for whatever reasons are and should be just that, our own. What is most disturbing is that not only the church’s mandates, but what many states are trying to mandate for women’s decision and their bodies.

See a pattern here Mr. Connor, it is men who are pushing these issues. Keep religion to yourself. It is a private matter, not to shove someone else’s beliefs and practices down the throats of the rest of us. For those onthe right, you can’t cast the first stone unless you are all as pure as the less than average wind-driven snowfall.

Vicki Hilden

Arlington Heights