CONTRACEPTION….Cristina Page writes in the Baltimore Sun this week that the press should pay attention not just to Republican candidates’ rhetoric on abortion, but also to their rhetoric on birth control in general:
There are code phrases to listen for — and for those keeping score, [Mitt] Romney nailed each one. One code phrase is: “I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation.”….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.”
….For now, the candidates vying for the Right to Life endorsement are doing their best to avoid directly answering mainstream voters’ simple questions on the subject, such as, “Do you support couples having access to safe and effective birth control options, including emergency contraception?” Considering that even 80 percent of self-described “pro-life” voters and a majority of Republican voters strongly support contraception, it’s no wonder why.
Via Ann Friedman, who has more. If the GOP field is going to compete with each other to pander to their base on this, the media ought to let the rest of us know it. Words matter, right?
