Mini-abortions are happening monthly!!!!!

In 1996, Senator Bob Dole ran against Clinton and lost. In 1997, he starred in a series of Viagra ads. Republican lawmakers wanted to require that insurance companies cover Viagra prescriptions and women's groups wondered aloud why it was that insurance companies would pay for Viagra when they were not required to pay for birth control pills.

As a result, more than half of states now require insurance policies that cover other prescription drugs to also cover all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices, as well as related medical services. This includes Arkansas, where Jim Huckabee signed the measure into law. In fact, this was a Republican initiative, started in 1997.

Now, all of a sudden we have the "Life Begins At Fertilization" movement. Rick Santorum is saying that birth control gives people the ability to ignore the consequences of their actions (and here I thought that birth control allowed people to control the consequences of their actions and plan accordingly). All of the Presidential candidates have signed on to this, notwithstanding the fact that this puts them well to the right of the State of Mississippi, whose voters just overwhelmingly struck down a "life begins at conception" amendment to their constitution.

The Birth Control pill does the following: It prevents implantation of a fertilized ovum. That is how it works. Now, I'm not talking about the "Morning After Pill," which is just a stronger dose of the regular Birth Control Pill. Because of this, the Catholic Church has decided to call the pill an "abortifactant."

Nutcase Republicans are leaping on this term asserting, I suppose, that there are millions of "little abortions" being practiced monthly by women. This is why I find Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's little gathering Thursday, February 16th so repugnant. He gathered a group of old men together to discuss women's health. Not one woman was allowed to testify—not even Ann Coulter! Then he compared his work to deny women access to contraception through insurance to the work of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Huh? "Let my people go?"

He styled the hearing a discussion on whether contraception rule violates religious liberty and then only invited people to testify who already believe the rule violates religious liberty. There was no attempt to be fair, no attempt to invite any views not shared by chairman Issa.

If you are a woman, if you know a woman, if you understand anything about women, you'll be horrified by this paternalistic panel.

In El Salvador, if a woman has a miscarriage, she is placed under suspicion of murdering her child. If a woman travels outside of the country and has a miscarriage or (heaven forbid!) an abortion, she is arrested as soon as she returns to the country. For murder.

This is where Rick Santorum and, presumably, every other Republican running for the nomination to be their party's candidate for President wants to take the United States. The Pill will be outlawed. Women will be driven back to the 1950s to the time before The Pill. I'll bet condoms will be taken off the shelves of drugstores. And any woman who worries about "being late" with her period will be labeled a "slut," or worse. The concept of family planning will go out the window.

Please tell me I'm wrong here.