Morning After Pill

So here's a story that says that the morning after pill does not lead to all the bad things that the right said it would. I'm shocked.

Easy access to the "morning-after pill" for emergency contraception use would not lead to riskier sexual behavior, according to a new study published in the January 5 issue of JAMA.
It would not increase unprotected intercourse, lead to abandonment of regular contraception, or increase the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), researchers found.
On the other hand, its use could prevent approximately half of the 3.5 million unintended pregnancies that occur each year in the United States, proponents of the pill contend.

I don't suspect that this will change much of anything however.

Private Aid

I've been watching Fox for quite a bit recently, and I have noticed that the new talking point is that while government aid from the U.S. may be small, the private sector is donating in droves. There are a number of implications to this strategy. First, it's a quick and easy response to the assertions that the U.S. has been "stingy" with aid money. Second, and more importantly, it really fits in nicely with Bush's whole free-market "ownership society" rhetoric. That is, the general strategy that has been advanced is that it is patently unfair to look merely to the amount of money that the government has forked over, but rather, given the free-market system here in the U.S. what you've got to do is look at what is being done in the private sector.

I think that there is something wrong with this strategy. First, by pointing to the amount of private aid that is being donated by the private sector, the argument only makes sense if we assume that citizens from other countries are relatively small. But I don't think this is exactly correct. As reported by the LA Times, "The government's pledge, which started at $27 million, has jumped ahead of the U.S. donation of $350 million, though it remains behind Australia's $765 million. Private donations by Germans have risen to more than $450 million, the highest such postwar contribution by the nation." Los Angeles Times January 13, 2005 Thursday. Further, "BBC News reported Britain's private donations have outpaced the British government's pledges". University Wire January 12, 2005 Wednesday. And, "The new money includes $265 million in emergency aid -- including $150 million to match private donations by Canadians -- and $160 million over five years for reconstruction." Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada) January 11, 2005 Tuesday Final Edition. There's more, of course, but I think you all get the point by now.