Dear Old Patriot, thank you for your legal framing of the abortion issue. How the Right weaponizes abortion against the rights of women that troubles me deeply.

And you might think as a man, I should not opine on this issue —but as what affects women’s rights affects human rights, I like to think I can also take a stand against whatever would deny women their rights.

To me, the core issue is that abortion is a separation of church and state issue. It is only about the “rights” of a fetus because the Catholic and some Evangelical churches follow a religious doctrine that “personhood” begins at conception. The term they leave undefined, and yet by the definition they believe all abortion is murder. Heartbeat, viability, etc. are all compromise smokescreens behind that core belief. They will always fight for more restrictions and not stop until we have a federal abortion ban.

Because it is a religious belief, it would be a violation of the constitution to put it into law. Yet they do. Surprise surprise, the very states that so are also bribing Christian Bible lessons back into public school (Texas, this week!).

In this country, everyone has the right to their own religion, and no one has the right to impose their sectarian views on others. So if you are religious, don’t get an abortion. But as to other people’s abortions, as Tim Walz so eloquently put it, “mind your own damn business.”