The leaked draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization has led many to recognize the grim ends-justify-the-means relentlessness of the American religious right. It should also be recognized that the movement's half-century assault on reproductive freedoms has ridden shotgun alongside a broader crusade: the endeavor to dismantle, brick by brick, the purported wall of separation between church and state.
That wall's ramparts were at their sturdiest in the 1960s. That was a moment in American history when separationist secularism was pushing prayer out of state-funded schools, abolishing religious tests for public employment and showing unprecedented concern for the rights of religious minorities. The judicial and legislative aspiration of that era was well summarized by John F. Kennedy's ringing affirmation: "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."
