"Bad Reaction"/Commonweal Editorial on Bishops and Contraception Mandate/ Attack on Women's Health Care Rights/Conscience/Religious Freedom

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/print/6166#.Tz_wJz6Yyl0.mailto

"Even before all the details of the president’s proposal were known, the bishops rejected it and then upped the ante by insisting that the only possible solution was to repeal the mandate altogether. In other words, the bishops are now demanding that no employer be required to offer free contraception coverage to its employees. To justify their response, they offered only the most tendentious reading of the possible flaws in Obama’s proposal. Now the USCCB is threatening a concerted political and public-relations campaign—during an election year—that casts the president as a determined enemy of religious freedom."

Bridget Mary's Reflection
The bishops attempt to demand the mandate is an attack on women's rights to health care, their conscience and religious freedom. Why do the bishops have the right to impose their views on Catholics and non-Catholics alike? We do have separation of church and state in the U.S. Isn't that one of the basic tenets of our democracy?