[Osx-nutters] anti-abortion groups

[Kevin Callahan]

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/24/11429/0449>

Eighty six anti-abortion groups have committed to opposing all forms  
of contraception. Among the groups are Right to Life of Kansas, Pro- 
Life Ohio, the Life League of New Mexico, North Dakota Right to Life,  
Connecticut Right to Life, California Right to Life, and the Delaware  
Pro-life Coalition. However, few of these state's media outlets are  
covering the groups' opposition to contraception--no matter how eager  
the groups are to display their extreme agenda. Thus the public  
doesn't know that their elected officials are pandering to anti-birth  
control forces in order to secure these groups' support. Yet these  
groups and their unpopular and dangerous agenda escape notice.  
Because of this, we'll wake up one day to discover that almost half  
the candidates running for president are opposed to contraception.  
Maybe tomorrow?

And this is how the Republican presidential candidates are playing to  
those groups:

Mr. Romney's code, deciphered, meant, "I, like you, hope to  
reclassify the most commonly used forms of contraceptives as  
abortions." In fact, he told the crowd, he already had some practice  
redefining contraception: "I vetoed a so-called emergency  
contraception bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without  
prescription or parental consent."

--snip--

Presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, beefed  
up his anti-contraception resume by co-sponsoring a bill to de-fund  
the nation's largest contraception provider, Planned Parenthood, by  
excluding it from Title X family planning for the poor. Arizona  
Republican Sen. John McCain's campaign officials boast he has  
"consistently voted against taxpayer-funded contraception programs."  
And Mr. McCain reports that his adviser on sexual-health matters is  
Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who leads campaigns claiming  
condoms are unsafe and opposing emergency contraception.

Another presidential candidate, Rep. Tom Tancredo, like Mr. Romney,  
has ventured far into the "contraception-is-abortion" territory.  
According to Mr. Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, emergency  
contraception "cheapens human life and simply uses a woman's body to  
dispose of the child instead of a doctor." By the same logic, so do  
the birth control pill, the contraceptive patch, the IUD, the  
NuvaRing, and the Depo-Provera shot - which, it's worth noting,  
together account for 40 percent of the birth control American women use.