I just hope someone will listen to him.

I basically agree with arguing that it makes sense to go accuse the right of promoting abortion by fighting contraception. I'm positive, though, that it's a mistake to limit this arguement -- that the right causes abortions -- to discussions of contraception.

The Republicans are forcing women, particularly women of color, to have abortions by pushing them into poverty. When the Republicans opposed universal health care in the 90's, they caused abortions. When Republicans oppose family leave, they cause abortions. When Republicans oppose increasing the minimum wage, they cause abortions. When Republicans support corporations that bust unions, they cause abortions. Poverty causes abortions and Republicans cause poverty.

I think this broader critique -- Republicans cause abortions by causing pregnancies (fighting contraception) and making those pregnancies unwanted (making it economically impossible to support children) is more likely to make inroads with working class Republicans than just arguing for contraception.

(It's worth pointing out that there are several prominent people who argue -- not entirely without merit -- that it's bad practice to suggest that abortions are bad. There are people who argue that an abortion is a medical procedure that takes place between a woman and her doctor and that it's inappropriate to attach moral weight to it, even when defending women's rights. I'm inclined to think of an abortion, when necessary, as being the best of bad options rather than morally neutral.)

Their goal is a society where people only have sex when they want a baby, so their top priority, more important than whether or not there are abortions, unwanted abused kids, diseases, or anything else, is making sure that anything which makes sex safer, from preganancy or anything else, is not available.

I simply have nothing to add, except that I wish people who weren't scared to death of other people having sex were in charge of things. I mean, really. I learned about contraception--heck, my mom offered to put me on the pill when I started college!--and still chose not to have sex until I was 22. And when I did, I used birth control. Look, a happy little nonpartisan story.

It's about controlling women and making people suffer for having sex for pleasure.

If the pro-life movement was serious about reducing abortions, they'd be pushing for better access to contraception, comprehensive sex-ed (with an abstinence focus for younger teens), health care for pregnant women, children, and families, more generous family leave policies, better day care, better schools, and better support for single mothers. It works in parts of Europe and could work here, too.

Instead, the movement's leaders are actively trying to limit (and ultimately ban) contraception, teach kids nothing about sex except not to have it, and do not support the policies mentioned in the previous paragraph. Not to mention that they trivialize the effect that pregnancy and childbirth have on a woman's mental, emotional and physical health. Sex is to be strictly for procreation, not for pleasure or emotional closeness or any of the million other reasons why people do it.

When leaders of the pro-life movement think that the right of a rapist to further victimize a woman by forcing her to bear his child is more important than her life, health, safety and well-being, something is seriously wrong.

a) Thanks, Kristof. At least sanity's getting published somewhere in the mainstream media on a regular basis.

b) Another success story, I suppose - my mom sat my brother and I down in front of a PBS VHS sex-ed tape when we were 14 and 12, respectfully. Never talked about it after that, but coming from a Catholic mother, the effort was appreciated. As it was, I decided I wanted sex before marriage instead of a potentially miserable divorce, but I wanted it to be in a meaningful relationship. Ended up waiting til I was 22, but thanks to the good folks at the health clinics at the two universities I attended, I had a massive amount of free condoms ("but i just have the flu... um, ok, i'll take 'em, i guess"). My roommate started a free-for-grabs collection in the bathroom, and everyone's happy and safe.

c) Another failure story, I suppose - my school, although in a usually blue state, didn't teach contraception. We learned all about the nasty STDs, to be fair, but nothing about how to prevent them, never saw a condom, etc. That section of our health book was convieniently in the middle of a softbound phamphlet/book, so it could be torn out with the staples intact.

My teacher, bless her, apologized up front on the first day of that subject, and told us that while she couldn't educate us like she wanted to without jeopardizing her job, she hoped we'd find a reputable person or place that could.

I took that class junior year. Later that year, a senior girl had a baby from a hidden pregnancy and left the baby outside of a church where she thought someone would hear her knock on the door. They didn't; it died. Cold and all.

I'm sure it would've turned out worse if they actually taught us about contraception, though. By golly, it doesn't always work, right? There could've been more incidents like that! Gasp, shock, horror! She must've heard about sex from the media! How else would she have known about it?

... thanks again, Kristof.