Driberally tonight

Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!

José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

This week's topic: Happy 10th anniversary today to American availability of mifepristone plus misoprostol, the abortion pill! About 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion during their childbearing years; about a million abortions are performed in the U.S. every year; and about 15% of all American abortions are accomplished with mifepristone. Not only do you probably know (or: drink beer with, share a home with, work with, sleep with, send your kids to school to be taught by, sit in church next to) a woman who's had an abortion, but also there's a good chance she used the abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.

And now Glomarization's friendly regular reminder: when abortions are illegal, or at least devilishly hard to come by, women will still get abortions. If they're candidates for a medical abortion but they can't get the safe two-drug combination, they will often try using Cytotec -- misoprostol -- on its own. It's not as effective as the two-drug combination, and if you think that off-label Cytotec use is only a South and Central American thing that doesn't happen in the U.S., you'd be mistaken.

"Come for the beer, stay for the check"