Religion's Impact On Governance

A number of essayists address the issues of private belief  overlapping into public policy, in the context of the House of Representatives' vote to defund Panned Parenthood -- including Valerie Elverton Dixon's (bio) salient piece stating that an unborn child has the rights that its mother gives it:

... the right of women to exercise choices remains under attack. This is done in the name of an unborn child. Let us be clear: there is no right to be born. Birth is a gift. A coerced gift is no gift at all. Thank God and your mother for your life.
The state's primary purpose is to protect the rights of individuals once they are born. So, in the collision of concerns--the rights of women to control her own body and the concern for an unborn fetus--the duty of the law is to protect the rights of the woman. Therefore, we must necessarily leave the protection of the fetus to the judgment of the woman. Here religion may play a part in persuading her one way or another. However the coercive force of law in this instance is unjust.

SOURCE: Washington Post