START ASKING CANDIDATES ABOUT CONTRACEPTION!

START ASKING CANDIDATES ABOUT CONTRACEPTION! Cristina Page had a great op-ed in the Baltimore Sun this week, making a plea that when journalists question presidential hopefuls (of both parties) about their reproductive rights beliefs, that they specifically bring up contraception access.Why? Because when the Republican presidential hopefuls speak to a roomful of forced-pregnancy advocates, they are doing everything but declaring their desire for a birth-control ban. These are things they're not saying in interviews with national media, or during the debates.Before this year's National Right to Life conference, which several Republican frontrunners attended, NARAL issued a list of questions for the candidates, and made sure to ask about their position on access to emergency contraception. While the questions were predictably ignored, at the conference Romney declared, "I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation." He's essentially saying he opposes hormonal contraception methods, because they could prevent implantation. Which -- newsflash! -- isn't just emergency contraception. It's the Pill, the NuvaRing, the IUD -- a slew of birth-control methods. Page explains,

Mr. Romney's code, deciphered, meant, "I, like you, hope to reclassify the most commonly used forms of contraceptives as abortions." In fact, he told the crowd, he already had some practice redefining contraception: "I vetoed a so-called emergency contraception bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without prescription or parental consent."

And it's not just Romney. The other Republican candidates are also working to deny women birth control:

Presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, beefed up his anti-contraception resume by co-sponsoring a bill to de-fund the nation's largest contraception provider, Planned Parenthood, by excluding it from Title X family planning for the poor. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's campaign officials boast he has "consistently voted against taxpayer-funded contraception programs." And Mr. McCain reports that his adviser on sexual-health matters is Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who leads campaigns claiming condoms are unsafe and opposing emergency contraception.

But Page and the repro-rights groups seem to be the only one talking about this issue. (Even the National Right to Life's crib sheet on the candidates doesn't feature their stance on contraception.) Yesterday the Washington Post had an article all about Romney and abortion, with nary a mention of birth control. It's time for the national media to start paying attention and quit narrowing reproductive rights issues down to abortion only. Because while the nation may be divided on how we feel about abortion rights, there is widespread and unequivocal support for contraception access. Moderate Republican voters should know that Mitt Romney wants to take away their birth control pills. I'd also like to see the Democratic frontrunners highlighting this divide on contraception between them and the Republicans. If some political analysts are to be believed, single women are a highly coveted group of voters. And even 80 percent of self-described "pro-lifers" support contraception. The Democrats are with the vast majority of the country on this issue, and it's time for them to start shouting about it.--Ann Friedman