Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes? Makes me think of Sex and the City ... birthday parties ... sugary frosting ... abortion.

Wait ... wha?! Unless this is a big joke and I am just very gullible, Cupcakes For Life is a website that’s celebrating National Pro-Life Cupcakes Day today by staging a birthday party for the unborn babies of abortion. Cupcakes For Life suggests you bring a tray of cupcakes in for a group of people who, naturally, will ask, “Cupcakes! Whose birthday is it?” Then you, the cupcake baker, are supposed to say, “It’s no one’s birthday. These cupcakes represent the 50,000,000 children who weren’t allowed to be born, who never had a birthday.” The helpful “cupcake ideas” page offers suggested frosting slogans, like “Thou shalt not murder” and “abortion kills.” 

In high school I read John Irving’s excellent book, The Cider House Rules, in which the protagonist, a young man named Homer, is raised in an orphanage under the care of a kindly physician, Dr. Larch, who he is shadowing and learning medicine from. Dr. Larch eventually reveals to him that he’s been performed illegal abortions all along and he’d like to teach Homer how to do the procedure, too. Homer balked at the suggestion, imagining that he could have been aborted instead of growing up happily in the orphanage. The response Dr. Larch gave him has always stuck in my mind: “You may disapprove, but you may not be ignorant or look away.”

That quote popped in my mind when I read Kate Harding’s piece on Salon.com, “Is There A Next Generation Of Abortion Providers?”, a frightening piece about how the ranks of abortion providers are thinning and pro-choicers worry they won’t be replaced.

Abortion unexpectedly plunged back into the news in recent weeks with the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who performed late-term abortions in Wichita, Kansas.

Everyone but the most far right extremists has condemned the killing and much of the media has focused on how this act of domestic terrorism is truly deplorable.  But clinic violence, awful as it is, occurs rarely compared to the legislative assaults against reproductive rights. So in response, Maureen Tkacik (formerly Moe of Jezebel and Gawker) has written a piece for Lemondrop about the things we never mention about when we discuss about abortion—but probably should.

A 51-year-old anti-abortion activist is in custody in Wichita, KS, after he allegedly shot and killed Dr. George Tiller, 67. Tiller, who had provided abortions to women for over 30 years, was gunned down in the foyer of his church while he passed out the church bulletin. [NY Times]

Some anti-choice extremists think all doctors who perform any abortions should be killed. But Dr. Tiller, in particular, was a lightening rod for controversy because he was one of only three doctors in the country who performed abortions on women in the third trimester, also referred to as “partial birth abortions.” But why are abortions in the second or third trimesters so controversial? Here are five things you’re probably asking yourself right now.

Dr. George Tiller, who, among other things, administered abortions at his Wichita, Kansas women’s clinic, was shot and killed today in front of his church. He was one of the few doctors who stilled performed late-term abortions, and his clinic was the target of many anti-choice protests over the years, including a previous attempt on his life in 1993. He was 67-years-old. A suspect is in custody. [CNN]

Some anti-choices groups have condemned the killing, while others have taken the opportunity to continue to condemn him, saying, “George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God.”

We think it’s pretty dope that Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s pick for Supreme Court justice, is (a) a lady and (b) could the first person of Hispanic descent to don Supreme Court robes. But many pro-choice advocates are sounding alarm bells today because they have a sneaking suspicion that, once on the bench, Sotomayor may not uphold Roe v. Wade, something they think should be a “no duh” for a judge appointed by a pro-choice president. What’s got them worried, after the jump… [NY Times]

On Inauguration Day, Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts to celebrate “freedom of choice.” Ruh-roh. CHOICE. Naturally, pro-life activists are flipping out over that choice of phrase and are calling the move an endorsement of abortion. Mmm, abortion donuts. Seriously can the pro-life community get worked up over something that would truly help curb abortions, like making sure everyone has easy access to birth control and is educated about safe sex? ‘Cause I’d like them to keep their paws off my body AND my breakfast, thank you.

Not sure what to get one of your best girlfriends or a female in your family for a gift this holiday season? How about a gift certificate to Planned Parenthood in Indiana or Illinois, which can be redeemed for any of their women’s health services, including pap smears, birth control, STD tests, and, yes, abortions. The gift certificates can be bought in $25 increments and really would be a great gift for a woman who doesn’t have health insurance, as PP’s services are generally very affordable. Of course, it should have been expected that the religious right would go all koo-koo crazy about PP’s latest offering and when we linked to a College Candy story about this topic in yesterday’s Quickies, we didn’t understand how much larger the issue was.

So, yesterday was a historic amazing day, with the first African-American winning the Presidency of the United States. It was also a bit of letdown, as it became clear that much of America still doesn’t like the idea of gay people getting married. But there was more good news! Three anti-choice measures failed! Amendment 48 in Colorado, which would have granted fertilized eggs fill rights, was rejected by 73% of voters; Measure 11 in South Dakota, which would have banned abortion save a very vague medical exception, was defeated; and Proposition 4 in California, which would have required parental notification, also didn’t pass.

On another note, Proposition K, which would have decriminalized prostitution in San Francisco, lost by 16 percentage points. [WOW and Feministing]

DMC Pharmacy in Chantilly, Virginia, will sell everything from cold meds to contact solution when it opens this summer, but if you want condoms, birth control pills, or any other form of contraception, you’d better head in the other direction. The “pro-life pharmacy” sticks to a strict policy of not offering its patrons contraception or anything else that “interferes” with the procreation process. Virginia doesn’t have laws which require pharmacists to dispense prescriptions written by a physician, but luckily, there are at least five other pharmacies (pro-choice ones, we guess!) within spitting distance. [Washington Post]

Sigh. Sometimes you just can’t make this junk up. Marvin Richardson, an aspiring Independent Senate candidate, has legally changed his name to “Pro-Life” because, well, he is. Previously, and I am not joking, his middle name was “Pro-Life” but when he ran for the Senate a few years ago, officials refused to put his full name on the ballot because Idaho’s policy bars the use of slogans on the ballot. But Richardson is a trickster! So he changed his name to ONLY Pro-Life so that the secretary of state’s office would have no choice but to use it on the ballot. [CBS News]