Gail Collins thinks an important word is missing in the Planned Parenthood debate: Contraception. Jon Kyl and others prefer using a different word: Abortion. It makes for an easier target, even though, as Stephen Colbert comically made clear, abortions make up only a minuscule part of Planned Parenthood's work. What gives? "The answer is that a large part of the anti-abortion community is also anti-contraception." Planned Parenthood's contraceptive services don't sit well with social conservatives, many of whom "are simply opposed to giving women the ability to have sex without the possibility of procreation," writes Collins in the New York Times.
She concludes: "What we have here is a wide-ranging attack on women’s right to control their reproductive lives that the women themselves would strongly object to if it was stated clearly. So the attempt to end federal financing for Planned Parenthood, which uses the money for contraceptive services but not abortion, is portrayed as an anti-abortion crusade. It makes sense, as long as you lay off the factual statements." (More Planned Parenthood stories.)
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