What if one day you woke up to a news story like this?

Feb 24:    Tony Perkins, President of the formerly anti-abortion Family
Research Council, admitted to the Associated Press that the
organization’s previously stated mission of saving the "unborn" had
been ceded to other priorities. Perkins, who opposes preventing
abortion through contraception, says, "The issue is whether taxpayers
should fund, and thereby encourage, behavior that’s risky and morally
questionable," by which Perkins means having sex.

The acknowledgment that his moral agenda trumps his professed
desire to reduce the numbers of unwanted pregnancies, comes on the
heels of a new report released today by the Guttmacher Institute, a
non-partisan policy institute frequently cited by both sides of the
abortion debate. The report found that increasing access to
contraception is the most effective approach to reducing unwanted
pregnancy rates and the need for abortion. That report specifically
concluded that making contraception available to low income women
reduces the number of abortions by nearly 40%. When birth control isn’t
available unintended pregnancy increases by 2 million and the number of
abortions spikes by more than 800,000 each year. Researchers noted that
providing contraception saves taxpayers 4 times as much as not
providing it.

Some  91% of Americans favor contraception and so were startled to
discover that groups which claim to be against abortion oppose the very
strategy that results in significant declines in abortion. Instead, in
a further shock, they support policies that researchers show lead to
sharp increases in unintended pregnancy and abortion rate.  Many
ordinary self-described "pro-life" Americans were confused by news of
the seemingly incomprehensible, yet universally-held, position of
groups that have, for decades, promoted themselves as opponents of
abortion.

In light of the new information, other groups formerly considered
anti-abortion indicated that deep and long-held political grudges
played a primary role in their unwillingness to support policies that
reduce abortion. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue told the AP, "It’s
another Planned Parenthood bailout," referring to largest provider of
prevention services in the US, "It covers their overhead."

Sometimes referred to as "The Pro-life Paradox," researchers and
women’s health advocates in recent years have drawn attention to the
disparities between the mission statements of so-called "anti-abortion"
groups and the effects of their policies. For example, the countries
considered the most "pro-choice," where contraception is widely
available and abortion is legal, and often free of charge, are those
that also have the lowest abortion rates in the world. The countries
with the highest rates of abortion are those that have adopted the
policies of the so-called "anti-abortion" movement and have banned
abortion and opposed efforts to make contraception more widely
available.

Now, of course, comes that part in the movie where you
realize the main character has been dreaming. Screechy music… Of
course, the report is true, as are the quotes in this story, but the
co-called anti-abortion movement refuses to admit that its long held
political and fundraising habits have worked too well to now be
abandoned, and so continues to resist common cause (and common sense).
And the equally habit worn media continues to cover this story as if
there are really two equally sincere but unfortunately opposed voices.
Americans want this common sense approach. The fringe doesn’t. In fact,
80 percent of voters believe that women won’t achieve full equality
without access to family planning and 72 percent want federal funding
to help pay for birth control for low-income women. Now that the
enabler in chief is out of office, hopefully the marginal will be
marginalized, and along with them their media enablers.