Rick Santorum is running for President. Also, he's terrifying.

Ever since Iowa finished caucusing and Rick Santorum galloped to a narrow second place, the former Pennsylvania Senator has garnered, well, about a metric ton of media that he wasn't getting previously.

But I wanted to bring to your attention to one nugget about Santorum that I haven't heard too many folks talking about. He opposes birth control. Full stop. For single women and for married women alike.

The former Senator doesn't mince words about it either. "One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country. It's not okay. It's . . . counter to how things are supposed to be."

He's also said that as President, he would go about eliminating all federal funding for contraception.

Contraception being the thing that prevents pregnancies. Contraception being the thing that the Supreme Court declared free from states' attempts to ban it -- in 1965. Contraception having been used by ninety-nine percent of sexually active women between the ages of 15 and 44.

Among the myriad horrors of a Santorum Presidency, this one is near the top of the list. And that's because it's just another example of the extremism of the Republican Party. It's just another example of the party's unflinching desire to slash women's rights to bits.

And in a time when our economy remains shaky and women and families remain some of those most affected by it, I can't get my head around the idea that what the country needs is more unwanted pregnancies.

And so, Rick Santorum's positions on women and families can be summed up in just one word. Terrifying. Terrifying in his opinion that it's no big thing to make basic women's healthcare illegal; terrifying in his obliviousness to his own radical positions. Just really, really terrifying.

Related Blog Posts:
On GOP Caucus Day in Iowa, Know the Field

Best of 2011

Worst of 2011