"STOP the war on women and Planned Parenthood," she intoned. "Don't cut a dime in federal funding for Planned Parenthood." This e-mail was followed by one from the "liberal" organization, MoveOn, asking me to contribute money to its efforts to resist the "anti-choice militants" who seek to take away this "vital women's health resource."

There are so many ways for intelligent minds to respond not only to the crude reasoning of these appeals, but to the posturing by which the debate over abortions is conducted by both sides. Characterizing opposition to abortions as a "war on women" can just as easily be turned around to label abortions as a "war on unborn children;" styles of discourse whose genesis can be traced back to school playgrounds. Nor can the bumper-sticker sloganeering that reduces the question to "pro-life" and "pro-choice" considerations be looked to for any substantive meaning. Most supposedly "pro-life" adherents tend to be eager supporters of wars and capital punishment, positions that can hardly be defended in terms of commitments to the value of life. Nor do the allegedly "pro-choice" advocates have any inclination to extend to taxpayers the "choice" of whether to have the government fund abortions, child day-care centers, or any other government programs that fit their ideological agenda.