Maggie Gallagher’s question, “If we had truly separated sex from reproduction, why would we need abortion?” begs another.
Many years ago, I was a contributing editor at Playboy, giving it up when my pretty, new, blonde wife insisted on giving me nothing but daughters, and I found I couldn’t leave my work laying around the house. I remember chatting one afternoon with an editor who had been at the place for a long time. “We thought we were doing something noble when we helped separate sex from guilt,” he said. “But then we realized that we’d helped separate sex from responsibility.” Not so noble, of course. I think this may overstate Playboy’s influence, but not the Pill’s.