The health care reform debate really shouldn't have had much to do with abortion, which is why health care reform opponent Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been so successful at making the issue his own. With his controversial Stupak Amendment, he divided Democratic supporters of health care reform along ideological lines, split the narrow coalition that supported the House bill, set up pro-choicers to take the blame for what would have been the bill's probable defeat, and more than likely ensured lifetime popularity in his conservative district.

But the current bill before Congress doesn't include Stupak's language, so he's making one more attempt to attach his language to the reconciliation bill that Congress will consider tomorrow. Failing that, he has called on conservative Democrats to sink the bill under the pretense that his amendment does not appear in the final bill.

There is little reason at this point to believe that Stupak will succeed in amending the bill, but his effort to defeat the bill on the basis that his amendment is not included could succeed. If that happens, count on a Democratic backlash against anti-abortion politicians who claim to be pro-life, but refuse to save the 45,000 Americans who die every year due to lack of health insurance.

Related: Is Health Care a Human Right?

As a native Mississippian, I don't like to see my state end up in the national papers over some idiotic thing that a public official, paid with my tax dollars, has decided to do.

I saw it happen last year when Wesson officials risked a lawsuit because they didn't want to let Ceara Sturgis wear a tux in her yearbook picture. Great publicity for Copiah County superintendent Rickey Compton, who has now scored enough points with anti-gay activists to guarantee a bright political future, if he wants one. Not such a great idea from a civil liberties perspective, though--and he promoted himself at the expense of Sturgis, a brilliant young woman who didn't really plan on national celebrity status.

Now we're seeing it happen again as anti-gay administrators target 18-year-old Constance McMillen in Itawamba County. Superintendent Teresa McNeece has apparently decided that getting her own name in the paper as somebody who won't let students bring same-sex dates to the prom is well worth whatever a free speech lawsuit would cost. Who needs dropout prevention programs, anyway?

Here's a novel idea, folks: Do the jobs you're actually paid to do--which means supporting the kids in your district, not bullying them at state expense.

Related: How to Start a Gay/Straight Alliance at Your School

Abortion is legal in the United States in part because, as a 2007 World Health Organization study shows, abortion bans don't actually prevent abortions. Women can terminate their pregnancies whether it's legal or not; all the government can do is make the procedure more dangerous by banning medical supervision.

When countries go the extra mile and try to ban women from altering their own bodily functions to prevent a pregnancy, the results are Orwellian--as we see in much of Latin America, where forensic vagina specialists investigate hospitalized women for suspicious-looking miscarriages.

Or Utah or Kentucky, where proposed legislation would criminalize miscarriages in cases where prosecutors do not feel that survivors have done enough to protect their pregnancies. The situation in Utah is particularly dire: the bill has passed both chambers of the legislature, and currently awaits a signature or veto by the governor.

Women's rights groups, including National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), are working to fight bills that violate the civil liberties of pregnant women. But as long as conservative legislators see embryos and fetuses as citizens, and pregnant women as property of the state, pregnancy regulation is likely to remain an integral part of the pro-life movement.

Related: Falling Down Pregnant Can Get You Arrested in Iowa

The ACLU reports on John Ashcroft's recent statements in favor of civilian court trials for suspected terrorists. This is not the first time we've had evidence of Ashcroft's civil libertarian streak: in 2004, he stood up against the Bush warrantless surveillance program--and abruptly resigned shortly after it took effect.

History will not remember Ashcroft as a champion of civil liberties because of the administration he served in, but he illustrates the principle that a person of conviction, no matter how conservative he might appear to be, is always a potential ally on human rights issues.

Related: The Torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed