Contraception as Stimulus? Nancy Pelosi Should Know Better

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:36:06 +0000 – By S.E. CuppConservative Commentator

Nancy Pelosi has suggested that birth control can help economically challenged states save some much needed money. Excuse me while I throw up just a little.

[caption id="attachment_6274" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (AP)"][/caption]

This is the same camp that is giddily cheerleading unconscionable (and as of yet totally ineffective) spending to bail out the financial and auto industries. And now they want to convince us to pinch pennies by having fewer children? Are we taking notes from China now?

Women's rights were hard fought, like anything worthwhile, and their modern-day ambassadors should treat the battle with a little respect.

Suggesting that birth control can save us money is insipid and thoughtless, and likens the decision to use birth control -- one that no woman should come upon lightly -- to bargain hunting. "Times are tight, ladies...so hit the sales!"

If so-called feminists want the respect of the greater population -- people who value the sanctity of life and those who value women's rights -- they need to stop embarrassing women by cheaply politicizing very real issues. We wonder why teenage girls think it's cool to get pregnant, or that it's easy to remedy an unwanted pregnancy. It's because women like Nancy Pelosi don't seem to think confronting those moments should be done with gravity and some moral searching. Worse, they seem to think the government has the right to aid and abet women in those very personal decisions.

Just within my short lifetime birth control has morphed from a whisper into a scream. Once girls were rightly embarrassed to ask their mothers if they could go on the pill, and now they are serenaded by upbeat commercials telling them they have dozens to choose from. Lauren Bosworth, a reality star from the MTV show "The Hills" was just tapped to market Yaz to 18-year-old Canadian girls. We should educate our youth about safe sex practices, yes, but we don't need to celebrate (or minimize) the decision to have it without consequences. And we certainly don't need to use contraception as a political weapon to push liberal fiscal policy.

Ms. Pelosi is the first female Speaker of the House, and the highest ranking woman to hold political office in U.S. history. She should carry that mantle with dignity and respect for allwomen and the complicated decisions we have to make. She's also a mother of five and a grandmother of seven. She should know better than to use birth control as an economic incentive.