Ellen Goodman - Whose Common Ground?

[realFedUp]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped... /

Whose common ground?
By Ellen Goodman | January 30, 2005

snip

If there is any shared turf in this debate it would be the one that both Clinton and Kennedy bid for: a flat-out campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Yet at this moment, the FDA has once again delayed approval of putting Plan B, the after-the-act contraceptive, on the drug store shelf. This emergency contraceptive, if taken soon enough, can prevent more than 80 percent of unwanted pregnancies.

It's been four years since the manufacturer applied for approval to have Plan B sold over the counter. One FDA advisory committee after another has found it safe and effective for all ages.

Even the notion that it would lead to increased sexual behavior has been dismissed by a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Indeed, as David Grimes of Family Health International wrote, saying that emergency contraception would promote risky sexual behavior is like saying "that a fire extinguisher beneath the kitchen sink makes one a risky cook."

snip

Safe, legal, and rare. We're already at the meeting ground. The question is not how far we move but when the other side will get there.

continued

[Ms Chicklet]

1. The other side won't come

They don't want abortions to be safe or legal. They don't want women to have easy, safe control over their reproduction.

They want women to be at the mercy of men and their own uterus. The thought of women having any kind of power scares their fragile little minds. They want abortions to be dangerous for the women. They want women skulking down alleys. They want women to suffer, bleed and maybe die. Because then they're properly punished. The way of the transgressor and all that other religious horsepoo.

The other side has a madonna/whore complex that taints everything they believe.

[realFedUp]

2. Dems miss another opportunity to be clear

One point is this is about stopping pregnancies before
they take place. Make birth control easy to get.

We need some short, clear statements
on every position folks...the long
speeches don't make the evening news.