What the HELL is he thinking?

I will admit that it has been a very long time since I have been surprised by just how badly politics can manage to mangle our lives.

It doesn't matter, for the most part, on what side of the political fence you find yourself...both are so entrenched in their bias that real dialogue ceased to exist longer ago than I even want to think about.

Through it all, there is one issue that each year, is my litmus for candidates; and that is a woman's right to own and manage her own reproductive system. The state simply has no right on this earth to hold court over my uterus.

Every election; I pay more attention to which candidates will bring which changes to the Supreme Court justices...and every year I avoid those with tendencies to support the agenda of those which fail to recognize and work to remove the right of women to make the most personal choices.

And so when I read in the Editorial section of today's San Jose Mercury the attempt by the Department of Health and Human services to re-write the definition of abortion to include the following :

"any of the various procedures - including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action - that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

I was absolutely stunned.

I know of no scientific report that has suddenly concluded that viable life exists at the moment of conception.

I know plenty of religious zealots that would, and sadly the Catholic church is STILL promoting the "rhythm" method as the only acceptable means of birth control.

But beyond this issue...which would most certainly fail approval under a democratic president, beyond the sheer insanity of the proposal....what the HELL is Bush thinking? I mean, really George-- don't you have enough serious REAL problems to fiddle with without bringing out this old chestnut at the 11th hour ?

The right to choose to have an abortion is something I grimly fight for every time I step into the voting booth.

I just didn't expect to ever have to go back to fighting for access to birth control.