Editor's note: Anika Rahman is president and chief executive of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
By Anika Rahman, CNN
(CNN) - After Thursday's vice presidential debate, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell was emphatic that moderator Martha Raddatz's question about the role of the candidates' faith in their positions on abortion had "absolutely no business in a government that has a separation of church and state."
In the now-famous words of Vice President Joe Biden, "That's a bunch of malarkey."
All of us are guided by an internal code of morality, whether it is dictated by religion or by personal responsibility to humankind. Both Rep. Paul Ryan and Biden were explicit that their faith informs all of their decision-making, and that includes issues related to a woman's body.
"I don't see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith," Ryan said. Biden echoed his sentiments, saying his religion "defines" who he is and has "particularly informed" his social doctrine. (The difference in their approaches lies in Biden's refusal to shape national abortion policy according to his personal beliefs, an important distinction for candidates to make.)
While abortion is often framed as a matter of rights (with many women supporting it merely on principle rather than personal necessity), its implications for women go far beyond the mere theoretical.
Read Anika Rahman's full columnBy Chris Isidore @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - The American Civil Liberties Union sued Morgan Stanley on Monday, charging the Wall Street firm discriminated against African-American homeowners and violated federal civil rights laws by providing funding for risky mortgages.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, is the first that connects racial discrimination to the process of bundling subprime loans into mortgage-backed bonds that were then sold to institutional investors and pension funds. The lawsuit was filed behalf of five Detroit residents, and asks the court to certify the case as a class action. It argues as many as 6,000 black homeowners in the Detroit area may have suffered similar discrimination.
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