With Andrea's post from the other day fresh in my mind, I set out to find my issue-du-jour, and I came across a 1999 satirical column from the always-irreverent newspaper, The Onion.

In an Onion column, "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion!," fictional author Caroline Weber writes, "The funny thing is, I actually have the pro-life movement to thank for this opportunity. If my HMO wouldn't have bowed to their pressure not to cover oral contraceptives, I never would've gotten pregnant in the first place."

And we thought Russell Shorto was timely! This was 1999… The above quote illustrates how the opposition's long-held anti-birth control mentality has paved the way for the realities about abortion in women's lives.

Wittiness aside, without access to birth control and information, many women will indeed face an unintended pregnancy. Efforts against contraceptive coverage, accessible EC, and comprehensive sex ed only serve to increase the number of women who – contrary to the rhetoric – are not "totally psyched" finding themselves having to "choose."

Because the majority of Americans overwhelmingly support family planning, taking a public position against birth control has long been avoided by most anti-contraception groups. Yet it didn't take too much scratching to see it below the surface.

The underlying belief is that birth control does not prevent the need for abortion; rather, it is an "abortion" in its own right. As Judie Brown from the American Life League (ALL) states, "…once a chemical or device acts to destroy the newly fertilized egg, which is a brand new life, then we are not any longer dealing with a contraceptive. We're dealing with an abortion."

Among the organizations profiled on Rewire, many explicitly equate birth control with abortion, including American Life League, C-FAM, Concerned Women for America, Human Life International, Population Research Institute, and Priests for Life. Many others take the position that life begins at fertilization, which leaves them only a step away from making the same conclusion about contraception as their peers. Those groups include American Values, Family Research Council, Culture of Life Foundation, Eagle Forum, Focus on the Family, and National Right to Life Committee. All fight against access to affordable reproductive health care.

It is women and their families who bear the consequences when these groups play their political trump cards to limit access to contraception and effective sex ed. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will say it again: key to stopping abortion is working to stop unintended pregnancy.