Santorum Suspends Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced he was suspending his campaign at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His exit from the campaign all but assures that Mitt Romney will be challenging Barack Obama for the presidency in November.

It's unclear why he picked today as the day to step aside, although a look at the polls in his home state offer a clue. According to Public Policy Polling, Romney was leading Santorum in the polls among likely Pennsylvania voters by a score of 42 to 37 percent. Many people argued that Romney's campaign would not survive if he could not win his home state of Michigan, so perhaps Santorum saw the doom facing his own political future if he couldn't win in Pennsylvania.

Using "the pill" equivalent to using a condom? Are uptight Conservatives that in the dark about women's sexual health?

Conservatives seem to think women use the pill like men use a condom. Idiots.

Gotta watch your baby-maker. I mean, uterus.

To the vast majority of women, taking the pill is no big deal. There are a variety of reasons why women begin taking the pill and at what age they start. I got a prescription for contraceptives in my late teens. Other women I know, including in my own family, started the pill much earlier because of highly irregular, unusually painful or heavy cycles. Some women try the pill, but find they prefer not to be on it. Some women prefer patches, shots, rings or implants. The point is, we all have to go through it and deal with it (our periods that is) ... and we all pretty much end up having sex at some point. Enter (more than 50 years ago I might add): oral contraceptives. Except in 2012, women's access to the pill is under attack, as well as the reputations of women who take the pill.

In Arizona, women may be forced to provide personal details from their health care providers to their "moral" employers to justify that they aren't just using the pill for pregnancy prevention. (In other words, for sex). These details could range from including the very nature of your uh-em, lady cycle, to private medical disorders whose symptoms oral contraceptives help treat (such as polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis).

Besides the medical reasons, there are plenty of other non-sex benefits, which include acne control, PMS relief, and to time that time of the month more conveniently. However, the "it's violating my religious freedom" or the "who's going to pay for it" arguments are the only intellectual backbone social conservatives can pretend to give this "controversy". To me, it seems there is a false equivalency being drawn between the pill and condoms. Although it isn't always said outright, this is how the pill is being treated rhetorically by conservatives (including high profile conservatives):

The GOP's Southern Problem

By Nathan Rothwell

Republican presidential candidate Rick Buttfroth picked up Mississippi and Alabama in Tuesday's primary contests. Although fellow candidate Mitt Romney has failed to pick up any southern states in this primary season (Virginia and Florida don't really count, in my eyes), Tuesday's results all but assured that Romney will eventually be named the nominee.

As many have already predicted would happen, the social conservative wing of the Republican Party, once their greatest asset, has now become marginalized within their own party. While they still exist in large enough numbers to propel Santorum and Newt Gingrich to victories in the southern states, they are practically voices shouting in the wind everywhere else. According to CNN exit polls on Tuesday, even in Mississippi Romney is still the preferred choice among Republican women, those making at least $50,000 a year, and anyone who identifies as something other than "very conservative."