From the 2008 Democratic Platform:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education which empowers people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman's decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.

Why this made me happy today:

The whole battle on abortion has centered for entirely too long around the simplistic "pro-life" and "pro-choice" monikers- monikers that are propagated by the MSM. Recently far too much of this debate has expanded to include not just the question of abortion but access of women to contraception. One of my friends frequently argues that if men were the possessors of a uterus that the rules would be different, and while I hate to believe that she's right I honestly think that she is. For the first time with this platform statement, the Democratic Party is taking on all aspects of reproductive rights- not just those relating to the question of abortion. The idea of supporting sex ed, affordable contraception, and every child a wanted and supported child? Novel for a major party in the U.S., and a fantastic response to the attempts by the Bush administration to return all of us girls to "barefoot and pregnant" status.

(You'll notice that I'm careful to say "major party" above. That's because all of this is consistent with the policies espoused by the Green Party in the U.S. for years- and while I'm registered as a Green, I know it's not a major party.)

I'm all for people having babies when they want them and can take proper care of them. I'm also all for people choosing not to have babies for any number of reasons- be it that they can't support them economically, that they just "know" they're not cut out for parent life, or that they can't reconcile what they want out of life with parenting. I'm delighted to see an affirmation of a political society that will help people who fall along all ends of the family spectrum (and that is, ultimately, about gender equality).