Catholics have moved on from the women's movement of the 1960s [Letter]

When will commentator Jon O'Brien at Catholics for a Free Choice wake up and realize that the 1960s are over and that the women's-freedom-and-birth-control debate has moved past his tired framework ("Whose freedom are the bishops protecting?" June 19).

True, most Catholics still struggle with or even reject the church's demanding teaching on this matter. But that's only the beginning of the story.

Younger Catholic women are more sympathetic to the church's teaching than their mothers. And Catholics generally, like most Americans, are deeply opposed to the government's threatening the very existence of Catholic services to the poorest women and men because of the administration's belief that sex divorced from commitment and kids is the single most important aspect of women's freedom.

In a world awash with sexualized pre-teens, porn, a 41 percent nonmarital birthrate and poor single moms, Catholic women and others are relieved and delighted that the church continues to stand as the voice of sanity, beauty and women's flourishing where sex is concerned.

Helen M. Alvaré, Bethesda

The writer is professor of law at George Mason University and founder of WomenSpeakforThemselves.com.

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