Columnist David Goldman compares the contraceptive mandate in the US with recent bids in Europe to outlaw circumcision and kosher slaughter. "The vehemence and thoroughness of the campaign against religious practice bespeaks a world in which our lives will be scientifically engineered by a benign and all-encompassing state," he says.

Goldman sees a clear connection between the rise of state power and the decline of healthy family life, particularly in the US:

America used to be a land of families; increasingly we are a country of singles and elderly living alone in tiny cubicles. The natural constituency for religion-the traditional family-is weakening. 51% of births to women aged 20 to 30 occur out of wedlock. If individuals abandon family responsibilities, they will fall to the state by default.