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We're also seeing the Protestant political and legal groups talking a lot more about birth control. They have adamantly defended of Catholic pharmacists who refused to fill birth-control prescriptions in a way that they have not defended other stances of conscience they do not themselves share. And lately, frustration about judicial activism has focused a lot less on 1973's Roe v. Wade and a lot more on 1965's Griswold v. Connecticut, which threw out a Connecticut law banning contraceptives. (Search the websites of Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, and elsewhere.)

Might evangelical Protestants move from opposing high doses of what's in oral contraceptives to opposing oral contraceptives altogether? The jury is definitively out. But there are early signs of change. A new conception of the pill may be implanting.

Life ethics:

• Cloning plan poses new ethical dilemma | Scientist courts controversy with call for women to donate eggs (The Guardian, London)
• The organ factory: It takes a vivo | Part 2 of a series (William Saletan, Slate)

Democrats seek pro-life voters:

• Democrats seek nuance on abortion | Reid and Pelosi are pressing party Dean to establish an official relationship with Democrats for Life, which the Democratic National Committee has previously shunned (The Hill)
• Dean urges Dems to court pro-life voters | Democrats need to reach out to voters who oppose abortion rights and promote candidates who share that view, the head of the party said Friday (Associated Press)
• A shift in antiabortion strategy? | After years of arguing that Roe is a life or death issue, antiabortion activists are beginning to argue that Roe isn't the real issue (Dante Chinni, The Christian Science Monitor)
• Groups paint picture of a post-Roe landscape | States would decide fate of abortion laws (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)

John Roberts:

• A religious freedom case could reveal a lot about where Roberts falls | Gonzales vs. O Centro Espirita pits religious conservatives against law-and-order conservatives (William McKenzie, The Dallas Morning News)
• Counting Catholics | Roberts would give members of his church a plurality on the Supreme Court, but no one is making a big deal about it—yet (Michael McGough, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Politics:

• Weiner says he would increase ties with religious groups | Chastising Democrats for failing to build relationships with religious groups, Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said yesterday that if elected he would increase the role of "faith-based" organizations in providing city services (The New York Times)
• We need to reach across the ideological divide | These days it seems that public debate has little to do with persuading opponents and almost everything to do with solidifying the base of our supporters (Don Argue, The Seattle Times)

Faith-based programs:

• Bush to seek more funding for faith-based charities | He tells black leaders that he will pressure corporate foundations to adjust their policies (Los Angeles Times)

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49