Monday's opinion page hosted commentary on the two most contentious social issues being debated currently: gay marriage and abortion. On one hand, Michael Khavari ("Upholding marriage rights," Nov. 23) asserted - correctly - that the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. is belligerently warning that it will cease to provide services to needy families and individuals because the Church refuses to acknowledge that homosexuals ought to have the same human and civil rights as the rest of society, including the right to marry.
On the other hand, George Pisano in his letter to the editor ("Setting the record straight," Nov. 23) argued incorrectly that the Stupak Amendment, which bans federally-subsidized households from purchasing health insurance plans that cover abortion under the proposed House health care bill, is acceptable because abortion is "morally wrong."
Neither gays nor women ought to be second-class citizens in this country. Abortion is a legal, Supreme Court-affirmed medical procedure. Young and lower-class women who may require federal subsidies to purchase insurance should not be required to play by a separate set of rules from middle- and upper-class women who can afford private plans that cover the operation.
In previous eras in American history, people of faith have courageously stood at the head of movements to better our society: temperance, abolition, and desegregation, for example. But now, the religious community (which, I realize, is far from monolithic) is trying to justify the denial of rights based on medieval notions of what is "moral." What is moral in 2009 is to acknowledge the biological and social differences that exist between all Americans and work to ensure equal opportunity and equal protections for all.\n\nMichael Karlik\nCLAS III
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