Well, not literally.

Bush has been blamed for most of the world’s ills over the past five years. He has been blamed for tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, obesity, a rise in global temperatures, and the pimple on Duncan Black’s posterior.

But I never thought I’d see the day when anyone would accuse the President of the United States of facilitating a sexual encounter between a man and a woman (Well, not literally):

The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn’t want. Well, not literally, but let me explain.

I am a 42-year-old happily married mother of two elementary-schoolers. My husband and I both work, and like many couples, we’re starved for time together. One Thursday evening this past March, we managed to snag some rare couple time and, in a sudden rush of passion, I failed to insert my diaphragm.

It seems when learning about the birds and the bees, none of us were ever told that a woman could also get pregnant simply by listening to “Rush” Limbaugh.

Well, not literally

Thanks to said “rush of passion” – during which time all the higher functions of the human brain cease and our gray matter reverts to the primordial medulla oblongata thus forcing people to think like a crocodile – our correspondent knew she was in trouble.

The next morning, after getting my kids off to school, I called my ob/gyn to get a prescription for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that can prevent a pregnancy—but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse.

[snip]

The receptionist, however, informed me that my doctor did not prescribe Plan B. No reason given. Neither did my internist. The midwifery practice I had used could prescribe it, but not over the phone, and there were no more open appointments for the day. The weekend—and the end of the 72-hour window—was approaching.

But I needed to meet my kids’ school bus and, as I was pretty much out of options—short of soliciting random Virginia doctors out of the phone book—I figured I’d take my chances and hope for the best. After all, I’m 42. Isn’t it likely my eggs are overripe, anyway? I thought so, especially since my best friend from college has been experiencing agonizing infertility problems at this age.

Weeks later, the two drugstore pregnancy tests I took told a different story. Positive. I couldn’t believe it.

Here is where I actually sympathize with the woman. I’m not exactly sure where I come down on this issue but my gut tells me that if a doctor will not prescribe the needed medication due to his personal moral or religious beliefs, he should do everything in his power to see that his patient has access to that medication through another doctor. And this doctor failed to do that and, in my opinion, failed his patient.

But whatever sympathy I felt for the writer disappeared after reading this:

I felt sick. Although I’ve always been in favor of abortion rights, this was a choice I had hoped never to have to make myself. When I realized the seriousness of my predicament, I became angry. I knew that Plan B, which could have prevented it, was supposed to have been available over the counter by now. But I also remembered hearing that conservative politics have held up its approval.

Actually, one man held up approval of the drug; former FDA chief Lester Crawford, who took over the approval process when he believed that insufficient safeguards were in place to keep children under 17 from purchasing the drug. Talk about politics, it was pro-choice commissioners who were railroading the drug through the process for political reasons, satisfying their constituencies.

Pot, meet kettle. And this is an outright falsehood:

Apparently, one of the concerns is that ready availability of Plan B could lead teenage girls to have premarital sex. Yet this concern—valid or not—wound up penalizing an over-the-hill married woman for having sex with her husband. Talk about the law of unintended consequences.

That’s a Planned Parenthood talking point, echoing conservative Christian groups NOT anyone at the FDA. For the writer to include this was pure spin, an attempt to smear Crawford whose concerns overrode the eagerness of the pro choice advocates to push the drug on the market. The matter is now in litigation as a civil suit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights against the FDA.

And “penalizing” someone for having sex? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I realize we live in a time when taking responsibility for one’s actions is so…so…bourgeois – so “common” – but one would think that the most personal of all human activities could somehow resist the call of modernity to place the blame for human reproduction on someone or something else.

Sex has consequences. Even an atheist like me knows that. And one of those consequences is that despite all the pills, mechanical devices, jellies, latex, and the #1 safeguard against pregnancy – good intentions – those wriggly little devils will find a way to make it to the egg if at all possible. This is the fact of life, not “rushes of passion” or any other pitiful excuse for resisting what by any stretch of the imagination is the one human endeavor where both parties alone are responsible for the result of their actions.

But our correspondent doesn’t stop there. Not content with blaming “conservative politics” (despite her assurance at the beginning of the article that she wasn’t “literally” doing so) for her predicament, she then brings her dim bulb of a brain to bear on the intersection of religion and politics:

Although I had heard of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control on religious grounds, I was dumbfounded to find that doctors could do the same thing.

Moreover, they aren’t even required to tell the patient why they won’t provide the drug. Nor do they have to provide a list of alternative sources. I had asked the ob-gyn’s receptionist if politics was the reason the doctor wouldn’t prescribe Plan B for me.

In other words, the religious or moral beliefs of the doctor are simply a matter of “politics.” What isn’t said is that only liberals’ political beliefs can have moral underpinnings. If a conservative follows their moral compass, it can be chalked up to “politics” only and thus delegitmized.

What a crock.

After relating how hard a time she had getting an abortion – something I wish wasn’t so but at the same time, like Bill Clinton, devoutly wish to see abortion a rarity in our society – She then lets loose with this eye popper:

It was a decision I am sorry I had to make. It was awful, painful, sickening. But I feel that this administration gave me practically no choice but to have an unwanted abortion because the way it has politicized religion made it well-nigh impossible for me to get emergency contraception that would have prevented the pregnancy in the first place.

And to think that, all these years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, this is what our children have to look forward to as they approach their reproductive years.

All this after saying at the beginning of the article that she was not “literally” blaming George Bush for her predicament.

Having blamed Bush for politicizing religion, perhaps she should read a little American history. Without the politicization of religion, she would be living in a city where African Americans were still riding in the back of the bus. And there’s a chance we would still have a draft and 100,000 troops in Viet Nam. Or perhaps slavery would still be a stain on our constitution.

No one has ever been able to separate religion and politics in America. They are joined at the hip, one leading the other depending on who’s in office. As secular as American society has become over the last 50 years, it has been religion and religiosity that has driven our politics for good or ill. Reverend Martin Luther King’s message was, in its heart and soul, a Christian message of sin and redemption. King changed America because he wanted to forgive us our sins and redeem the constitution and Declaration of Independence by making them living documents.

The Christian conservatives, so vilified (sometimes for good reason), see a culture so at odds with their beliefs that it has driven them out of the pews and into the voting booth in record numbers. They are not under some trance of Karl Rove or George Bush. They are genuinely frightened by the turn our culture has taken and fear for both the lives and the immortal souls of their children. To simply dismiss their concerns as “politics” is ignorant. They feel themselves prevented from living life the way that they see fit because others are imposing their beliefs on them.

Personally, I don’t mind the violence, gratuitous sex, and general mayhem found on TV, video games, and in films. But I can see some people asking that such fare be denied to youngsters as a responsible component of rearing children. This goes for everything from R rated movies to Plan B. And the writer’s complaints are symptomatic of a selfish disregard that liberals have for the sensibilities of those who disagree with an “anything goes” society. I would hate to live in a country where religion dictated what people could watch or wear or eat. But I would be equally uncomfortable living in a place where religion was prevented from impacting the political life of the country.

It’s no accident that this individual grew up in the late 60’s and early 70’s, a time when it was drummed into us that no on was responsible for anything. Criminals were routinely absolved of their crimes, sloth was celebrated as the natural state of man, and people could blame their problems on anything and anybody but themselves.

Well, not literally….

UPDATE

Cassandra and I are on almost the same wavelength as she fisks what little brains the dim wit was born with. Her take on personal responsibility is said much better than my clumsy attempts to come to grips with such out and out idiocy.

UPDATE: 6/5

Kevin Drum appears to be one of the only lefties who don’t think the woman should stop whining and take a personal responsibility pill. He calls Crawford “a liar” and then links to this news story that doesn’t prove Crawford was telling fibs but rather reveals Mr. Drum engaging in a typical blogger tactic of making an outrageous charge while supplying a link ostensibly supporting it but that does no such thing. In fact, here’s the money graf:

An April 2004 e-mail message from Jane Axelrad, associate director for policy at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said that allowing over-the-counter and prescription sales of Plan B in the same package would be “consistent with precedent” and comply with “applicable statutory and regulatory provisions.”

But that same month, an unidentified FDA deputy division director wrote that McClellan and senior management in Axelrad’s department “do not concur” and “cannot support” such a move. They, in turn, asked the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel for a final assessment on whether the drug could be sold both with and without prescription for different age groups.

Sounds like Crawford was concerned about safegaurds that would prevent little girls under 17 years of age from buying the drug over the counter.

Drum also points to this post by Digby where an FDA medical officer raised the specter of “sex cults” surrounding the use of Plan B:

In the memo released by the FDA, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an agency medical officer, wrote: “As an example, she [Woodcock] stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B.”

Rosebraugh indicated he found no reason to bar nonprescription sales of Plan B. (Emphasis mine)

So some wacky doctor at FDA makes an idiotic statement about adolescent sex. But I notice that Mr. Drum fails to mention that the same doctor supported over the counter sales of Plan B!

There is much to criticize regarding FDA procedures in this matter without making baseless, misleading charges. Drum should be ashamed of himself.