But many of those who think it’s wrong to forbid Americans to buy contraceptives think it’s just fine to require them to buy contraceptives. In this group, unfortunately, are President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who are hell-bent on enforcing that mandate on nearly everyone…

This is an issue on which the Catholic Church is drastically at odds with prevailing opinion and practice. Its position has a way of bringing out latent anti-Catholic sentiment. Writing in The Huffington Post, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn sneer at “the male hierarchy’s opposition to birth control.” The issue, they insist, “is too important to be left in the hands of a small number of men in robes.”

But religious freedom is too important to be left in the hands of people who see it as an obstacle to be pushed aside whenever it’s inconvenient. Anytime it is feasible to let organizations and individuals follow the dictates of faith, it’s essential that they be permitted to do so.