Who loves ya’, baby?

This is not a Kojak trivia game.

The race in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate is in its final week and it’s very close at this point. That alone is fairly stunning, as it would be if….say….a Republican challenger came along and won a mayoral race in Chicago right out from under the Daley machine.

But what I find most interesting in this contest right now is its focus on abortion and women’s best interests.

“With the special US Senate election less than a week away, abortion reemerged as a major flashpoint yesterday as Martha Coakley’s campaign sent out several activists to champion the Democrat as a defender of women’s rights and Republican Scott Brown called on his two daughters to respond.”

This is a compelling drama.

“Coakley supporters, appearing at a Boston press conference, bitterly railed against Brown, saying that his political positions were dangerous to women and that he was using “smoke and mirrors’’ to obscure his true beliefs and previous record. The primary focus of their attack was his sponsorship of a measure that would have allowed hospital personnel, on religious grounds, to deny rape victims emergency contraception.”

Wait….that constitutes the freedom of conscience. Brown stands for freedom of conscience, one of our fundamental rights. Even this article, though perhaps unwittingly, later explains that protecting this freedom for health care workers doesn’t deprive women of services or medicines they seek. Read down a little further….

Just after the part where it says…

“He seeks to erode our reproductive rights,’’ said Christina Knowles, state director for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women.”

Here’s the explanation:

“The 2005 amendment that Brown sponsored in the state Senate would have allowed a physician, nurse, or any other employee to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it “conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.’’ The facility would have had to have someone else who could administer the contraceptive or refer the victim to another facility at no additional cost to the patient.”

So freedom of conscience would have been upheld as a protected liberty, and the woman’s right to obtain lawful drugs would have been upheld as a guarantee, fulfilled by someone who doesn’t object on moral grounds.

And, when it didn’t pass, Brown signed the eventual legislation.

But Coakley has turned this into the centerpiece of her attack ads.

“In Coakley’s latest ad, a narrator says, “Brown even favors letting hospitals deny emergency contraception to rape victims.’’

And so…

“Coakley, who is trying to become the first female US senator from Massachusetts, has made women’s issues a strong component of her campaign. Yesterday morning, she had five surrogates hold a press conference at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. Coakley, however, was not at the event.”

Okay. She also mis-spelled the name of the state for which she seeks a seat in the Senate, or at least somebody in her campaign did (It read “Massachusettes”), but we all have typos when we work in a hurry with much to do. (Though we’re not all running for the U.S. Senate…)

Since Coakley is making this a woman thing, two of the Brown women stepped up and engaged.

“His two daughters headlined a press conference yesterday afternoon to call on Coakley to take down a recent ad that highlighted the emergency contraception amendment he filed in 2005.

“Martha Coakley’s new negative ad represents everything that discourages young women from getting involved in politics,’’ Ayla Brown, 21, told reporters at the Parker House downtown. “And as a young woman, I’m completely offended by that. . . . My dad would always stand up for the rights and needs of rape victims. And he’s kind, understanding, and he’s a very compassionate father.’’

Good points. We need young men and women of intelligence and integrity in politics. This type of disingenuous and negative camaigning discourages them from getting involved. It is offensive.

And saying this campaign is about women’s rights obscures the truth that it – and all government – is really about human rights.