It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the number one problem our planet is facing is overpopulation. We were doing fairly well at 2 billion, but now we are upwards of 7 billion people, which is exhausting our resources and causing climate change. Now that closely held corporations are not required to provide contraceptive coverage for their employees, a Hobby Lobby request, they are adding to the problem. During the last session in Olympia, myself and several 47th District constituents met with Republican State Representative Mark Hargrove. He stated that he strongly supported that decision. In his own words – which I wrote by hand as he would not allow a tape recorder in his office – he stated, “In general, as a philosophy, I do not want government to pay for birth control. Religious beliefs are who I am. In matters of conscience, I stand before God and let God guide my decisions. Show me in the Constitution where it says ‘separation of church and state.’”

So, Mr. Hargrove, there are 38 million women in our country in need of contraceptives. In that number, there are 20 million women who are living in poverty and cannot afford the $600 per year it takes to protect themselves from an unintended pregnancy and are in need of publicly funded protection. To raise a child born in 2013, it will cost a low-income couple about $145,500 to the age of 18. This number does not include college. A middle-income couple will spend $245,000 according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Taxpayers are paying 481 million per year for child welfare in Washington State alone.

My group supplied Mr. Hargrove with information on the billions of additional dollars this country would have to spend if there was not affordable access to family planning. He also voted against same sex marriage and doesn’t want women to have the right to choose. I guess, Mr. Hargrove, there is a very important reason why church and state should remain separate in our country; because what one person hears in their head from God can be very different from what another person hears.

Sonia Foss
Covington