In general, the government should not force religious-affiliated organizations to provide insurance for things that violate their religious beliefs. This particular instance involves making organizations with religious affiliations like the Catholic Church cover insurance for items such as contraceptives, which violates their beliefs. To force anyone to violate their religious beliefs is a violation of the separation of church and state, and in this case is an unnecessary intrusion.

This issue came about when the Obama administration had previously planned to include churches under the same requirement. After an immediate furor, the administration took a step back and made changes so that churches would be exempt from this requirement. The administration has also made another “accommodation” which allows for religious organizations to contract outside insurance companies to provide coverage for contraception. This is really no accommodation at all; forcing someone to facilitate something that they believe is immoral is still a violation of their beliefs even if they are not directly involved.

One of the more vocal sources of opposition to this requirement has been the Catholic Church. In response the President stated 98% percent of Catholic women use contraception in attempt to justify his infringement on others’ religious beliefs. He actually deliberately misused statistics from a study done by the Guttmacher Institute that surveyed contraception use. What the President failed to mention is that the study only counted women who were sexually active and did not want to become pregnant, which excludes all catholic women who are open to becoming pregnant and those who are not sexually active. The institute the conducted this study was named after Alan F. Guttmacher , a former president of Planned Parenthood. Not only was the data misrepresented but it can be reasonably assumed that the study itself was set up to obtain a specific and desired result by a group with its own agenda and bias.

Mandating that religious organizations cover contraception or anything else that violates their beliefs is wrong. The government has no place forcing any kind of religious organization into violating their own tenants. The separation of church and state is not a one way street. It is supposed to go both ways. The administration should completely exempt all religious organizations that find this mandate objectionable. With organizations like Planned Parenthood offering cheaper and affordable birth control, forcing religious groups into violating their own beliefs is unnecessary.