Ladies and gents, how do you feel about restricted birth control pills and other forms of contraception?

Limiting access to legal abortions?

Reducing the amount of accurate reproductive health care information available?

With all the fervor surrounding Tuesday’s presidential election, it’s easy to forget there’s an entire 76 days until the new administration takes office.

That’s a whole lot of time for George W. Bush and Michael Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, to inflict even more damage upon us. If Leavitt and co. get their way, a whole new set of health care regulations will be introduced before Inauguration Day. And as young adults, we should all be worried.

Limiting the public’s access to contraceptives and safe abortions is asking for trouble.

If birth control isn’t available, it’s likely the rate of unwanted pregnancies would rise – many of them likely among teens. Consequently, medically unsafe abortions would occur, risking both the lives of the mothers and unborn babies.

It’s common knowledge that not every woman taking birth control pills is sexually active. “The pill” has a variety of other uses – for example, controlling acne or regulating one’s cycle.

It is, to put it mildly, extremely concerning that the government would withhold necessary medication from those who have a legitimate need for it.

What is the rationale behind restricting contraceptives? Because they encourage people to – God forbid – practice safe sex?

What’s next? Are they going to pull Viagra off the market because it encourages people to have sex – safe or otherwise?

The proposed regulations would also prevent women from accessing emergency contraception and even restrict rape victims’ access.

Excuse me? After enduring the physical and psychological trauma of a rape, the government wants to take away the drug that could prevent a pregnancy from such a brutal act?

Today, any University female, provided she’s 18 or older, can head to the University Health Center and get herself a dose of Plan B over the counter.

Before next year, though, that easy access could be reversed.

What happens when you have a bit too much fun after a night downtown? Better cross your heart and hope for the best come “that time of the month,” because those handy pills may not be available come next year.

As a final parting gift, Bush and his pals want, once again, to mix ideology with policy.

Right now, doctors and nurses cannot refuse to perform an abortion. But the proposed regulations would let health care workers decide how to distribute contraceptives.

The idea that, for instance, a Catholic pharmacist could refuse to distribute birth control pills to unmarried women because he disagrees with premarital sex is deplorable.

If an unmarried woman doesn’t want to commit to supporting a child, no pharmacist or government should deny her any form of contraception.

Period.

- Shannon Otto is the Managing Editor of The Red & Black.