Feeling defeated and infuriated. Hoping the latter prevails...

So, Pataki followed through with his promise today, vetoing a bill that would have increased access to emergency contraception to the women of New York state. A bill that could have decreased the amount of abortions in New York by 80,000. But, Pataki's worried about the children. The little lost lambs that could fall into the lair of the big bad wolf. Now, I don't know what immature girls he's thinking of - but I can think of no reason that a woman - be her 16 or 35 would go to a pharmacy to get emergency contraception than for one reason - she wants to prevent pregnancy. No one needs a doctor to tell you that you don't want to get pregnant. And, if a 15 year old girl is responsible enough to go to the drug store and attempt to purchase a drug that she knows will help her - even while facing the inevitable embarrassment (think about buying condoms when you were 16) - than she is obviously not as "vulnerable" as Pataki thinks.

His other reasons for the veto: the bill wouldn't limit the purchase to a single dose, and, my favorite, men could buy the drug to persuade young girls to have unprotected sex with them. What's wrong with allowing women to buy more than one dose of EC? If anything, its a good thing to have around in case something goes wrong. Hasn't he seen the new Rosie the Riveter posters saying, "Back up your birth control"?

As for men using the drug as a persuasion in soliciting sex - come on Pataki - give us some credit. We've been dealing with the "if you loved me you'll do it" and the "I shoot blanks" lines for years. What makes you think we can't deal with one more?

I'm at a loss for what to say about this anymore. It's an embarrassment to New York.

The FDA has promised to give a ruling on the OTC availability of EC by September 1st....I just hope no one on the panel is planning on running for president and needs to convince a conservative base...