A big issue is that sexual politics have become partisan. There used to be pro-life Democrats and pro-choice Republicans, but those are practically extinct now,

A big issue is that sexual politics have become partisan. There used to be pro-life Democrats and pro-choice Republicans, but those are practically extinct now, and support for birth control seems to depend on your political party. Since the 1980s or so there's been a kind of religious revival where certain Christian groups have asserted themselves politically and come to dominate the Republican party, bringing their personal conservative social values into politics and even lawmaking, especially with regard to the appropriateness of sexual behavior and the role of women in society and the economy. Naturally, many (though not all) women find this push for a return to tradition to be abhorrent; they don't want to go back to the past. It's not just a theoretical, academic political disagreement. These issues are personal, they strike home.