Because, Paul, it is not truly about preventing unwanted pregnancy. It is, as Bunnahabhain said, about controlling women, pure and simple.

That is why it is not about the life of a fetus, or the life after fetushood, or the life of condemned prisoners (as in capital punishment) or the lives of people who see the world differently from us (as in war), or the lives of Mother Nature's other beings, or about preventing abortions (as in sex education and open discussions of alternatives to intercourse), or helping people become more responsible sexual beings (also as in honest sex education).

Remember how Jocelyn Elders was forced to resign when she suggested that youngsters who felt irresistable sexual urges and wanted to remain unpregnant and disease-free should masturbate? Yeah, like that. I mean, what does masturbation have remotely to do with saving the "lives" of fetus-people?

Control of women. That is the only explanation that makes sense. I wish the pro-choice mouthpieces could more effectively make that point. And "we" have that fierce need to control women in common with...guess who? Great company, that.