Many groups feel vested in the president's choice but perhaps none are more concerned than women and their partners --who risk losing reproductive privacy. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor provided the swing vote on decisions regarding women's reproductive health and other issues including affirmative action, separation of church and state and worker rights - all of which impact women's lives. A shift in the balance of the Court, because justices serve for life, could impact a whole generation.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

Reproductive privacy: by a narrow majority the Court has upheld this fundamental freedom, the right of an individual to decide whether or not to bear a child.

• Of the total number of U.S. women in their childbearing years, 42 million (or 7 out of every 10) are sexually active and do not wish to become pregnant.
  
  
• Virtually all women 15 to 44 who have ever had sex have used at least one contraceptive method.
  
  
• An average woman who wants two children will spend five years pregnant or trying to get pregnant and roughly 30 years trying to prevent pregnancy.

If the balance of the Supreme Court were to shift, Roe v. Wade could be reversed. Legal dominion over abortion would revert to the states. Many would ban it or make it a criminal act.

• Nearly 60% of Americans say that, if presented with an opportunity to appoint one or more new justices to the Supreme Court, President Bush should pick individuals who would uphold Roe.
  
  
• 34 states have statutes that allow health care providers to refuse to perform abortions. 12 extend the refusal to cover contraception and nine explicitly allow medical professionals to refuse to give out information on contraception or family planning based on religious beliefs.

With some pharmacists refusing to fill birth control prescriptions, and others on the religious right declaring birth control as a form of abortion, family planning itself could be challenged. AMA standards state women who have been sexually assaulted should be offered emergency contraception, yet there is mounting evidence that some hospitals are not providing it.

• The directors of two influential government programs, the Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and the head of the nation's family planning program (Title X) support abstinence-only policies.
  
  
• A study of pharmacists in Pennsylvania found 65% said they had negative feelings about emergency contraception and 13% believed the pills cause an abortion. The pills actually prevent ovulation and fertilization.
  
  
• 61% of high school seniors have had sex, and four out of 10 girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once by age 20. 78% of teen pregnancies are unintended.
  
  
• Comprehensive sex education helps delay sexual activity and gives students tools to avoid unintended pregnancy and STDs. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report attributes 53% of the decrease in pregnancy to increased abstinence and 47% to increased use of contraceptives.
  
  
• An overwhelming majority of voters support sex education, and don't support pharmacists refusing to fill birth-control prescriptions (Planned Parenthood Federation of America Survey).

These are lifetime appointments that deserve careful scrutiny. Supreme Court justices serve until they die or retire, and they cannot be dismissed except through impeachment.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists family planning as one of the 10 great public health achievements in the 20th century.
  
  
• Before birth control and abortion were legal and readily available, the average woman would become pregnant between 12 and 15 times in her lifetime.
  

How involved should the government be in making decisions about our private lives? What are the ideological issues that divide Americans on this subject? Is there a middle ground on the issue of reproductive rights? How serious, actually, is the threat that women might lose access to birth control and other contraceptive measures? How will these changes affect our work and home lives?

Talking Points