Sharon Levin, Director of Federal Reproductive Health Policy

Not to go off on a rant, but…

Earlier this week, I was very upset by an interesting post on The New York Times Economix blog about the economic arguments for contraception.

Not the whole post by any means, just the first sentence – which was wrong. Really, really wrong.

It said, “Americans passionately disagree about both the biology and the morality of contraception.”

This simply isn’t true.

Nine out of 10 adults believe birth control is moral. That doesn’t sound like passionate disagreement to me.

Oh, and on the “biology” of birth control? 99 percent of sexually active women have used contraception. It is one of the most widely prescribed categories of drugs and devices in the country.

Birth control is an everyday part of the lives of American adults in the 21st century.

It is the norm. The usual. Conventional. Routine.

And yet, it certainly has been debated in the news a lot lately.

Why?

Another slap your forehead/they don't get it moment.

Mike McCurry, in describing the four moderators for the Presidential debates said, "We have two very experienced, seasoned, veteran journalists who have been around and have done it, and then we have two women in between who have both distinguished themselves in their reporting and the awards that they’ve won."

Please notice that the two male moderators (Jim Lehrer and Bob Schieffer) are referred to as "journalists" and the two female reporters (Candy Crawley and Martha Raddatz) are referred to as "women". I get that he is trying to point out the gender diversity, but the opposites here are "male journalist" and "female journalist" - not "journalist” and “woman”.

And, since when is Candy Crawley not “a very experienced seasoned veteran journalist?” Let’s ignore the fact that she has been a journalist for over 30 years. (Seasoned? Check.)