That's right Charles Blow: Women's health care IS an economic issue! Make sure you read the link in its entirety. Just saying' (again!).

Birth Control, Abortion, and Economics

I can't help but to wonder whether there is a campaign to push women out of the workforce. Let me start by addressing what some have said labeling birth control and abortion as "unimportant" issues in this election because voters are more interested in the economy.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: women's participation in the economy wholly depends on birth control. Why? Raising kids is no joke. Kids who are 0 - 5 are the least independent years. Infants can't feed themselves or go anywhere on their own; they don't have enough language to communicate their needs; and they can't articulate, beyond tears, what's bothering them. This means a parent has to communicate/handle these needs. Stunningly few of us can afford high quality child care, espeically for the youngest of kids (including nannies) and don't get paid maternity leave. Real economic considerations factor into whether to have a child and delinking the job challenges we face as a nation from trivial considerations like birth control really demonstrates a lack of undersatnding of how women's lives work. There is a profound lack of undersatnding of what child care requires. Alternatively, birth control IS an economic issue.

To add insult to injury, factor in the fact that women apparently have no judgment about their sexual encounters - indeed, we can't decide if we actually wanted sex or not and our bodies know better. Therefore, the only rape is forcible because, ladies, rape generally isn't forcible. Which implies that there's no such thing as rape. If all sex is wanted, all children are wanted and there are no emotional (or financial) reasons to terminate a pregnancy. All children are wanted! And we all want to take 5 years out of the workplace to care for those wanted children.

Which brings me back to I wonder if the real issue is pushing us out of the workplace and stop taking jobs away from men. Just sayin'.