>>>Riiight - but you keep comparing the two like they're related somehow so the discrepancies are meaningless.
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>Of course they're related: both involve coercion. Smokers want to smoke. Bishops want to live according to their deeply held convictions. When is it appropriate for the state to overrule? As I said earlier, a good place to start is to ask "where is the victim".

Now you're starting to sound like the GOP stating that the hearings on contraception "have nothing to do with women, it's not about women, it's about religious freedom". Yeah, it is - it's about my employer not imposing HIS (or HER) religous beliefs on me simply because I work for their company. And let's not bring up the 'I could choose to work elsewhere' because sometimes that's not a viable choice.

To answer your question "Where is the victim?", it certainly isn't the bishop, or the priest. It's the women - and yeah, I can hear your eyes roll from here. Pregnancy can be very hard on the body - particularly when pregnancy follows pregnancy. "That's simple, don't have sex - then you won't get pregnant", you say? Well, it's the same bishops who are telling women that sex is a man's perogative and they must submit. "That used to be the case, it's not anymore", you say - to which I reply, "yeah, right and what fundamental churches are you surveying?"

"Well, the Bible says 'be fruitful and multiply' and that's the basis for these deeply held convictions", you say. The Bible also tells me to kill my husband because he wears clothes of mixed fibers (and myself, for that matter, but I do so love linen/cotten blends), among other things. Let's not get into the 'boom' verses.

The reality is that, deep down in the dirty little heart of it, contraception, or lack thereof, has always been a way of controlling women's behavior and propagate that lovely double standard the men can do anything sexually with no consequences because it's the women to get nailed. And the difference between a co-pay and paying for the prescription yourself is anywhere between $75 and $100 here in the States and there are a lot of women who can't afford that and it shouldn't come down to depending on where you work.

Bottom line: If these 'holy' men don't like contraception, they're not being forced to use it. And they can avoid those women who DO want to use it.