Divisions in both parties, plummeting polls and the role of reproductive health in America are all in the news, with the biggest story being today’s confab of the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to discuss complications resulting from differing delivery methods of Mifeprex, the prescribed abortion medicine. According to News Medical Net, the “manufacturer Danco has said about 575,000 women have taken it since its approval and there is no evidence linking it to the deaths and has repeatedly said the pill is safe.” Toxic shock, the cause of the women’s death, can occur during pregnancy, after childbirth, miscarriage or termination of a pregnancy. See (Fact v. Fiction) for more information.

Paul Chesser writes for the American Spectator in an anti-sex screed against the recent Guttmacher Institute report Abortion in Women’s Lives and concludes, “There's no reason everybody else should have to pay for the sex poor people want and the pregnancies they don't want.” Check out Reckless Rhetoric for more evidence of “enlightened” thinking like Mr. Chesser’s.

Understanding the link between contraception and preventing unwanted pregnancy are Senators Harry Reid and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who yesterday called attention to the problems with insurance reform legislation and the risk it poses to all who use contraception, reported in The Washington Times.

Evidence that social conservatives are unhappy with Bush and his inability to deliver a sexless, contraception-free, homogeneous nation is easily seen in the President’s skid to a 31% approval rating, but the Washington Post reports that Karl Rove’s recent demotion has him “planning a summer offensive to win back conservatives with a mix of policy fights … votes on tax cuts, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage, new abortion restrictions, and measures to restrain government spending.” In other words, the GOP is fighting to protect its base as moderates run screaming from the President’s record. You would think with poll numbers going down the President would reach for the center, but every effort of the anti-choice, anti-contraception, anti-sex, anti-science agenda is to appease a fracturing base of social conservatives.

Over at Democratic HQ, Rep. Rahm Emmanuel literally went running and screaming from Howard Dean demonstrating divisions among Democrats over concerns about how the party is going to conquer while the GOP is divided in upcoming midterms.

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire is creating her own problems according to reports in The Stranger by Josh Feit, as she has been less than helpful on efforts to support women wanting access to Emergency Contraception. Salon’s Broadsheet has an excellent piece on the War on contraception, revisited that the Governor may want to read to remind her of some basic facts, and today, also in Salon, The children they gave away by Sarah Karnasiewicz, looks at what some women faced before Roe v. Wade.

Need to feel good about politics? Read Fighting Back in South Dakota in The Nation about several native women taking politics into their own hands after examining the voting records of elected officials on women’s issues, and especially in light of the anti-abortion ballot measure. Their resilience is admirable and may be genetic as reported in A Natural Force in the Los Angeles Times, a look at the strength of women.