You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music. Hi, and welcome to the Double X Gab Fest for Thursday, February 23rd. It's the Reindeer Sweater Edition. I'm Jessica Gross, and joining me here in New York is Noreen Malone, a staff writer for New York magazine's website. Hi, Noreen. Hey, Jess. Filling in for Hanna Rosen in D.C. is her estimable husband, the editor of Slate David Plotz. Hey, David. Hi, Jess.

I know, Rene.

Hey. Hey, Jess. Filling in for Hanna Rosen and D.C. is her estimable husband, the editor of Slate David Plotz. Hey, David. Hi, Jess. I'm Noreen. Hey, David. We're so glad you could join us. You don't sound that glad that I can join you. Well, it's a little, it just changes the dynamic, you know. It's the boss man and a dude. Not my boss anymore, so I'm excited. So the first

topic are the latest attempts by Republicans to restrict access to contraception and abortion.

Second topic is a new report showing the majority of moms under 30 are now single. And the final

topic is the remarkable growth of the male accessory market,

or man accessories. And let's start with contraception and abortion. In the past week or so,

there were two big events in the world of women's health. First was the all-male house contraception

hearing about whether religious institutions can opt out of paying for birth control.

And the other was a proposed Virginia law that would require women to get ultrasounds before

they were allowed to have abortions. There's a huge outcry from women about these two events.

And David, what do you make of these past couple weeks in the women's health wars?

Do you think that these are kind of just fringe moves that will be defeated and they're like all the other fringe moves that we've

seen in the past decades? Or do you think we're moving into some kind of new stage? I think it's

pretty clear that as a cultural issue, we're not going back to an era where women can't get

contraception or where there's stigmatization of women who use contraception.

That part is obvious.

On the particulars of the federal mandate for contraceptive coverage and free contraception for women, I'm not sure that the Obama administration has got the great victory that it hoped it was going to get.

I think it had a fantasy that it had

jujitsued the Republicans and conservatives, but now all these religious organizations that

self-insure are saying, you know what, we still are going to have to be forced to pay for contraception

that we don't want to pay or infringing in our religious liberty. What all of it on the, this

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