Comstock Lives
The bible and the Christian Church are still, as Elizabeth Cady Stanton realized more than 100 years ago, the major stumbling blocks to women’s emanicipation.
With the defeat by a narrow 51-48 margin a week ago of the Blunt Amendment to override President Obama’s contraception mandate in the Senate, it’s currently Women 1, Orthodoxy 0. But the Catholic Church, joined by Protestant fundamentalists and evangelicals who are increasingly siding with that church against birth control, has promised not to give up. The House version has more than 200 sponsors. It’s going to take vigilance to defeat the latter-day Comstockians playing political football with women’s rights and lives. Once more the assault against women’s rights has taken center stage as the most significant state/church battle of our time.