Good news, for a change:
The Obama administration has decided to stop trying to block over-the-counter availability of the best-known morning-after contraceptive pill for all women and girls, a move fraught with political repercussions for President Obama.
As a result of the decision, girls under 17 will no longer be arbitrarily denied access emergency contraception. It's easy to see why that's a big deal, but it seems a bit weird for the
The New York Times to describe it as "a move fraught with political repercussions for President Obama." One reason is that he actually
hasn't changed his position—it's just that his administration is giving up the legal battle to block access to it.
But even if he had changed his position, what exactly is he supposed to be afraid of? Stuff like this?
“We’re very concerned and disappointed at the same time because what we see here is the government caving to political pressure instead of putting first the health and safety of girls (and) parental rights,” said Anna Higgins, director of the council’s Center for Human Dignity.
Or things like
this?
“Parents all across the country ought to be really, really concerned that we’re seeing the Obama administration completely surrender any principle of defending women’s health to the politics of big abortion,” said Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest.
Those are hardly arguments to be afraid of. Their position is so hard to defend that instead of admitting what they really want—control over every aspect of women's reproductive lives—social conservatives instead hide behind the absurd claim that their main concern is health. The truth is, health is the last thing they care about—otherwise they'd be in favor of allowing access to emergency contraception.
When they're not inverting the meaning of the word health, they're busy claiming that they are simply trying to protect young women from rapists and pedophiles:
If giving girls under 17 access to safe and effective emergency contraception is actually a cleverly disguised effort to help pedophiles and rapists, then requiring seat belts in cars was actually a cleverly disguised effort to protect drunk drivers from killing their victims.
Seriously, with enemies like these, the only thing Obama has to fear is himself.