Todd Gitlin highlights a point Garance made months ago: The Republican field all say “life begins at conception.” So it’s time to start asking them — especially the surging Baptist minister — whether they think hormonal birth control should be legal. The pill, in some cases, prevents implantation of a fertilized egg, not fertilization itself. That’s a favorite talking point of the anti-choicers, and the reason they harp on it is because they truly don’t believe in access to this most common of birth control methods.

I would also pose this question to candidates of both parties: Do you believe pharmacists have the right to deny birth control to single women?

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.