CHICAGO — Birth and abortion rates among U.S. teens fell to record lows in 2008 as increased use of contraceptives sent the overall teen pregnancy rate to its lowest level since at least 1972, a study showed on Wednesday.

via Teen pregnancy, abortion rates at record low – Health – Women’s health – msnbc.com.

Let’s make this as clear as day….if you want there to be less actual abortions in the world, support widespread use of contraceptives and real sex education.

If instead, you would prefer to complain constantly about abortions and teen pregnancy while fighting policies that alleviate both issues, become a Republican…like these folks.

It is NOT a coincidence that the same folks coming out against birth control (and Planned Parenthood) are also against women’s right to choose when to start a family and against any notion that either education or healthcare is a human right.

Without masses of uneducated voters scared of getting sick, how could they ever maintain any sort of power?

The Associated Press: Boehner: Congress to overturn birth control policy
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSQvV9Z7SifqEE6Qs3PDeZZoBYcw?docId=3e6eebd4085a4fa5a6d77abfe142f705

Said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.: “This has nothing to do with contraception. …. This is about whether the government of the United States should have the power to go in and tell a faith-based organization that they have to pay for something that they teach their members shouldn’t be done. It’s that simple. And if the answer is yes, then this government can reach all kinds of other absurd results.”

This is all dog-whistle b.s. for idiots that don’t think Obama is American or Christian. It should also be noted what the GOP wants to do is allow non-religious employers to force employees to follow whatever rules come out of Rome or Salt Lake (there is already an exception in the law for the religions themselves), and take that individual choose away from the little people who obviously can’t make that choice on their own.

Bernanke-Led Economy Shows Critics Wrong About Fed- Bloomberg
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/bernanke-led-economy-proving-critics-clueless-about-federal-reserve-policy.html

More than a year after Republicans from House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas warned that the Fed’s second round of asset purchases risked a sharp acceleration in prices, the surge has failed to materialize. The personal-consumption-expenditures price index rose 2.4 percent for the 12 months ending in December, near the central bank’s 2 percent target.

“The statements were politically motivated,” said John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s Capital Markets Group in New York. With unemployment stalled above 8 percent for three years, “I don’t see how anybody in their right mind could form a strong argument for persistent, rapid inflation in the United States without the participation of the labor market.”

Even though the economy is showing signs of strengthening and inflation appears in check, Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, who also are running for president, have said they wouldn’t keep Bernanke, 58, when his second four-year term as Fed chairman expires on Jan. 31, 2014. Gingrich said in September that Bernanke was “the most inflationary, dangerous and power-centered chairman” in the central bank’s history.

“The criticism about the Fed being inflationary is not fact-based,” said Mark Gertler, an economics professor at New York University who has co-written research with Bernanke. “In terms of an inflation record, the facts are the Fed has been as close to impeccable as you can possibly get.”

The Fed is a good litmus test to tell if someone has any clue what they are talking about re: international finance, or is a conspiracy nut worried about Jews bankers controlling the world (Ron Paul version….who BTW…has yet to win a single state…Ricky Froth has won four).

In their pandering to the nutjob crowd every single Republican who did so has been wrong.*

* so far.  Economics has a way of biting folks in the ass when making bold predictions based on limited data…as this story attests.