NCJW President Phyllis Snyder's Religion-State Op-Ed Published by New York Jewish Week
December 16, 2005, New York, NY -- The following op-ed was published by and posted on the website of the New York Jewish Week. The article, written by NCJW President Phyllis Snyder, decries the ongoing imposition of a fundamentalist agenda on reproductive rights and the implications for the separation of religion and state.
Senior officials of the Food and Drug Administration decided recently, in advance of any scientific study, to bar over-the-counter distribution of emergency contraceptive medication. This is bad news for those of us who believe in the importance of objective medical research. It is bad news for those of us who believe in a woman's right to reproductive health care. And it is bad news for those of us who believe in the constitutional guarantee that enables each of us to exercise our own religion -- or no religion -- without the interference of government.
But it really isn't news at all. It's just another day in the continuing campaign to satisfy the religious right, an effort that has been the hallmark of the past five years of government policy. The revelation here comes from the fact that an independent agency, the Government Accountability Office, was able to document the actions that subverted the normal process of what is supposed to be an unbiased evaluation of the health risks of a prospective drug.
The writing has been on the wall for some time. The effort to impose a fundamentalist agenda regarding reproductive rights began Jan. 20, 2001, when President Bush signed the Global Gag Rule denying US funds to any entity that used its own money to perform, provide, or talk about abortions. While decrying a judicial litmus test, the president has never named anyone to the federal bench who is publicly pro-choice. In 2002, the president directed states to designate any developing fetus as an "unborn child," and began withholding funds from the UN Population Fund, even when the appropriation approved by Congress already barred the funds from being used to provide abortions.
In November 2003, President Bush signed the so-called "partial-birth" abortion ban, which in reality is a law written so as to ban abortions as early as 13 weeks, without an exception for the health of the mother. And in 2004, he refused to join 85 world leaders who signed a statement reaffirming their commitment to "uphold fundamental human rights including sexual and reproductive rights."
So when it came time to approve emergency contraception for over-the-counter distribution, it was no surprise that the Bush administration obstructed progress at every turn. We now know that just as in "Alice in Wonderland," the verdict on emergency contraception was decided before the trial was held.
Perhaps the worst news of all is this: The issue of reproductive rights is only the tip of the iceberg. Though close to 2,000 faith groups are active in America today, we've all been effectively compelled, in more ways than we can imagine, to answer to a single belief system.
This faith-based policy, for example, plays out in classrooms across the country. In August, the president weighed in on the side of the religious right's campaign to insert "intelligent design" in public schools. Simply put, this theory promotes faith within the curriculum instead of science.
And this policy impacts the most personal of arenas. Efforts continue to impose abstinence-only sex education, even when studies show it to be ineffective, at best, and, dangerous, at worst. Stem cell research has been held hostage as well. Though in-vitro fertilization produces an ample supply of embryos that could be used for life-saving study, research has been restricted to inadequate existing stem cell lines. Even private questions of life and death became fodder for government intervention when, contrary to the wishes of Terri Schiavo's husband, Congress passed emergency legislation and the president dropped everything to fly cross country to sign it.
A majority of Americans support reproductive freedom, contraception, stem cell research and sensible sex education. But that isn't even the point. When policies on these and other sensitive issues reflect only one religious view, those policies threaten the religious views of us all.
This is not news to those of us who stand in the minority, those of us who came to America to escape religious persecution in the first place. But left unchecked, it could change the landscape of freedom in this country for generations to come. Taking action today could make all the difference. Organizations like the National Council of Jewish Women already are speaking out in the religion-state debate. Isn't it time for the rest of the country to join the conversation?
NCJW is a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all through its network of 90,000 members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide. It has launched BenchMark: NCJW's Campaign to Save Roe, a national effort to educate and mobilize NCJW members, the Jewish community, and friends and allies everywhere to promote a federal bench with judges that support fundamental freedoms, including a woman's right to choose.
Contact:
Rebecca Cole
212 645 4048 x182; rcole@ncjw.org