I'm still thinking that the General has the right idea--Whenever a woman crosses a state line, we need to be inspecting her vagina for blastocysts--just in case she might be travelling to a state where abortion, contraception, or plan B is available. Doesn't the logic of the Christianist position dictate that? Think of how many "little babies" might be saved! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "internal passport", wouldn't you say?

Anyhow, speaking of plan B, OfWood Susan Wood, former assistant commissioner of women's health at the Food and Drug Administration, has this to say:

Time and again in my travels I am asked, "What happened to derail Plan B?" I have to answer honestly that I don't know. The manufacturer agreed to take the "controversial" issue of young teens' access to emergency contraception off the table in 2004; now we are talking only about adult access to safe and effective contraception. Over 98 percent of adult women have used some form of contraception. So what is the objection?

The objection is that when women use contraception, they tend not to get pregant. And give 'em access to shoes, and they don't stay barefoot.

Perhaps it is that posed by a small but vocal political minority that insists on labeling emergency contraception as abortion, or at least confusing the two. One of the main questions I hear is, "Does this pill cause an abortion?" In fact, the only connection this pill has with abortion is that it has the potential to prevent the need for one. Emergency contraceptive pills work exactly the same way as other birth control pills, and they do not interfere with or harm an existing pregnancy. Emergency contraception is simply a higher dose of daily birth control pills; it is not RU-486, the "abortion pill."

Sure. But the idea is to get them pregnant. Why is that so hard to understand?

It's been nearly three years since the first application came in to make Plan B emergency contraception available over the counter, so that women, including rape victims, could have a second chance to prevent an unintended pregnancy and the need for an abortion. How many chances have we missed? I still can't explain what is going on here, and why women 17 and older are still denied this product in a timely way. When did adult access to contraception become controversial? And why have we allowed it to happen?

Why? Because we allowed ourselves to be bullied by Christianists. No more.