Growing up in the Jewish faith, Christmas always fascinated me in many ways. Not only did I view images of Santa Claus and prancing reindeer bringing gifts to happy children, but more serious (and to me, mysterious) displays included a family in a barn, celebrating the birth of a miracle child. As I aged and learned more about the Biblical circumstances that led to the birth of Jesus, I became more confused than ever. How did this story translate to policies that seemed to govern my life? For clarity, I set out to read more about the Annunciation.

On the surface, the Bush administration's attempt to push through a last minute rule change "protecting" health care professionals who oppose abortion and other reproductive procedures sounds reasonable. After all, no one should be compelled to do work that is against her religious beliefs. However, as an article in the Nov.

This month Time reported that "the pharmaceutical industry decided there wasn't enough of a market to make male hormonal contraceptives worthwhile." (h/t Pandagon) This is one of the more annoyingly ridiculous things I've read this month. Men, watch out for flying pigs, because Big Pharma doesn't want your money.

Every day, I take a birth control pill (except during the "off" week). In this way, I am no different from a large number of American women. My daily pill is not an abortion under any recognizable definition of the word, but new regulations under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services say that it is. Further, people who oppose abortions can deny me my right to medication that has been prescribed to me by a doctor.

Further, it is part of a nurse's job to care for their patients no matter what they're in for. And it is the responsibility of doctors to provide care for their patients within the scope of their specialty. But more and more, medical professionals are refusing to do their jobs because of their personal, moral and/or religious beliefs.And I've been really confused by this, because I was raised by a conservative.

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that reproductive rights were not a priority issue for women this election year. This insight struck me while I was in a writing class with nine other (mostly liberal) women in prime childbearing years (20s and 30s), and I was the only person who mentioned that repro rights were among the three issues I considered most important in this election. I wondered what this meant.

Dr. George Tiller is a saint. Despite three decades of harassment - legal and illegal, such as when someone shot him in both arms, Dr. Tiller continues to provide abortions for women carrying severely damaged fetuses or whose lives are endangered by their pregnancies. Like Dr. Tiller, Dr. Bernard Slepian and Dr. David Gunn are heroes, too.