Thoughts - Legislating from the Pulpit

It has been interesting watching the recent debate over RU486 and how it highlights how the merger of religion into politics is a bad move.

It also showed an interesting "contradiction" of sorts. For many years, the right has complained of Judges "legislating from the bench" yet in the current Abortion debate, we're seeing "Legislating from the Pulpit" as Tony Abbott used his position as Minister for Health to effectively put a new ban on abortion by blocking access to RU486 (and thus the subsequent uproar and vote overturning his decision in BOTH houses of parliament).

Problem is, Tony's implied rewriting of the laws around Abortion are much more insidious. You see, here we have an individual, backed by right wing evangelicals, making implicit rulings on what we, as individuals can or can't do. There's no legal basis for it (as a judge would do by interpreting the law), Tony just says "nah, I'm sticking to my belief and that means no RU486".

It's akin to Pharmacists denying women access to the pill or contraceptives because it goes against their faith. Look I have no problem with your faith, just stop imposing your beliefs on me.