Meanwhile, condoms remain on most drugstore shelves, but Boonstra says conservatives have made significant inroads on those as well. "There's been a campaign against the condom since the late 1990s to say condoms don't prevent disease," Boonstra says. She points to a chart on the government's www.4parents.gov Web site that shows that condoms are only 50 percent effective in preventing chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. "There's no scientific evidence for this, and in fact, the National Institutes of Health says condoms provide an 'impermeable barrier [to disease].' Social conservatives are trying to use science to say condoms don't work, and they do work." Fewer clinics, like college health and AIDS-prevention centers, are distributing condoms now thanks to things like budget cuts. Human Rights Watch, a gay-rights advocacy group, has also charged that police have confiscated condoms from AIDS outreach programs in some areas for use as evidence of prostitution or sodomy.

Today, nine in 10 insurance plans cover contraceptive prescriptions, a considerable climb from just a few years ago, but that number could slide again. Twenty-one states mandate contraception coverage in insurance policies, stemming in part from a push by women's groups outraged that insurers covered Viagra for men but excluded birth control for women. However, about half of all Americans with workplace insurance are covered by employers who self-insure (rather than buy an insurance company plan), and the self-insured are exempt from state requirements.

Conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and some Catholics are lobbying for plans that can also sidestep state rules. Bush backs such proposals and has made his own moves against contraceptive coverage. His 2002 budget dropped funding for contraceptive benefits in federal-employee insurance plans. Congress restored that funding -- though lawmakers have rejected a federal mandate to require contraception benefits as the states do -- and the president has since dropped the effort. But last year Illinois became the first state to allow federal employees an insurance plan that does not cover contraceptives, fertility treatment or abortions. Adam Sonfield, of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, is not surprised that the Republican-led Congress and businesses -- including conservative ones -- are unenthusiastic about such plans; they realize that pregnancy prevention is cost-effective. "There's only so far the congressional conservatives are willing to go," he says, "but sometimes they get pretty extreme."

So how far will this anti-contraception campaign go? As usual, both sides are looking to the polls and public opinion to support their cause. Sen. Murray welcomes the Plan B debate and insists that as the conservatives' contraception agenda is exposed, they'll lose ground. "I think the American public is basically outraged. People just cannot believe that access to birth control is in jeopardy. So the more they're aware, the more they'll act," she says. Murray believes she is backed by the polls, which show most Americans still support abortion rights. A New York Times/CBS News poll late last year also found 78 percent of Americans favor requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth control despite religious objections.

ALL's Sedlak agrees exposure is key -- and that his side will ultimately win over the public. He points to a survey showing that 78.6 percent of Americans believe using birth control will reduce the number of abortions. However, he says that if the public is informed of his position that most contraception actually constitutes abortion, that same majority will then oppose such birth control methods.

"We've found that once the women understand that, their whole attitude really changes," Sedlak says. Bush may also be counting on support for his anti-conception agenda from all those "moral values" voters who turned out overwhelmingly for the Republicans in the last election. A new Belcher poll commissioned by the Democratic National Committee found that in eight battleground states -- Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Nevada -- 47 percent of the voters and 51 percent of white women said religious faith influenced their votes as much as traditional political issues.

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