Birth control couldn't prevent Rick Santorum

Of the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.
--Mark Twain

This week I've been pretty self-absorbed, posting mainly on my personal/writing blog, not getting too riled up over any one headline enough to blog about it.

That all changed a few minutes ago, when I saw this bit (via Pandagon) about PA Senator Rick Santorum's latest edict on What's Good for Women (since he's the expert and all):

I don't think [birth control] works. I think it's harmful to women, I think it's harmful to our society to have a society that says that sex outside of marriage is something that should be encouraged or tolerated, particularly among the young. I think it has, as we've seen, very harmful long-term consequences for society. So birth control to me enables that and I don't think it's a healthy thing for our country.

Because sex, Ladies and Girls, is a bad, bad thing, and if you do it, you should be made to suffer the curse of babies. Except, we love babies, so sex is a good thing, because it makes babies. Babies are good, but sex is bad. Wait, I've got it: Sex without babies is bad, and sex with babies is good. No, no, that sounds perverted. I'll try again:

People, especially the young ones, shouldn't have sex, unless they're married. So young people should get married as soon as possible so they can have sex and babies. Babies are good for women! The more the better! Because the more babies you have, the less likely you are to have sex. And remember, sex is bad. It's the worst thing that can possibly happen to you.

(If you're Rick Santorum's wife, that is.)

Seriously now. You know what's harmful to women, Rick? Life-hating, self-flagellating Puritanism like yours. The conviction that anything that brings us happiness must also bring us pain. The delusion that God would create earthly pleasures only to make us miserable, to tempt us into defying His will so that He could hurl our souls into the lake of fire for all eternity. Nothing harms women more than living in the Shadow of Eve.

As a gender, we've grown out of that trap, thanks in large part to birth control. Santorum wants us to suffer for sex, the way we did in the good old days, when women would die in childbirth or risky abortion attempts, and then the man could go out and get a brand-new baby vessel--I mean, wife.