a bitter pill in election season

[niyad]

A bitter pill in election season

By CRISTINA PAGE


At all levels, anti-abortion groups are trying to undermine contraception of any kind.
The Centers for Disease Control is not the first place one looks to for ideas on conflict resolution. But with one issue that has divided America, it should be.

A recent CDC study revealed that between 1990 and 2004 teenage abortion rates plummeted by 50 percent in the U.S. The researchers suggest one common-sense policy approach is most responsible: access to contraception.

As political campaigns around the country take very different stands on the abortion issue, there is no question that this argument will intensify. And the stakes couldn't be higher. The next president, if history is any measure, is likely to appoint two Supreme Court justices. Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide, currently stands by one vote. The next election will likely decide whether Roe v Wade remains the law of the land.

Against this political backdrop, another, potentially more important, reproductive rights conflict may get lost. In fact, the issue many candidates don't want voters to think about is not abortion, but contraception, and the media hasn't called them on it.

Access to contraception is the only proven way to reduce unwanted pregnancy rates. It's no wonder that Americans on both sides of the abortion debate overwhelmingly support contraception. Yet few know that more and more candidates vying for their vote don't. Across the states, anti-abortion organizations have added anti-contraception activities to their agenda and expect those they help elect to office to join in these efforts. Since this issue isn't on most voters' radar, most complacently comply.

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http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A28484

[BrklynLiberal]

1. this is an issue that must be made an essential part of the campaign to

make sure that Obama is elected, and that a neocon, or any repuke I think, is never allowed to undermine the rights that we have suffered and struggled for thru decades.

[niyad]

2. absolutely

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. Of all the anti-choicers I've met in my life I recall only two who opposed contraception.

They were complete nutjobs. No one else. It's something to find easy common ground on and many of them are disbelieving when I tell them how the official "pro-life" movement opposes contraception. Most people don't follow these issues closely and don't realize that it's not just the so-called abortion pill that is being threatened, it's plain old birth control pills too. The ones that millions of women, including many who describe themselves as being against abortion, use to control their fertility and for a host of other health reasons. Girls as young as 12 are put on the Pill for reasons that have nothing to do with birth control. The article is spot-on. These authoritarian lunatics need to have their agenda exposed to the voters. More than one has openly avowed that they plan to go after Griswold after Roe is overturned.