Maine currently has the best sex education laws in the nation: they are age-appropriate, with medically-accurate courses that include abstinence and contraception. Collaborative practice agreements for emergency contraception allow women access to over-the-counter contraception, Plan B, directly from pharmacists. Teens aged 17 and younger may access Plan B through Maine Family Planning clinics and select pharmacies.

Chandler Woodcock voted against these agreements. He’s also anti-abortion, so I guess he’s against helping women either way. Woodcock opposed a minimum-wage increase twice, and voted against a bond to save our environment from toxic chemicals. He opposes state anti-discrimination laws. Maine voters approved all three.

Woodcock is a former teacher who declined to meet with the MEA, a group of current and former educators, before they endorsed Gov. John Baldacci. Shades of Benedict Arnold, no?

The Republican Governors Association paid for ads indirectly endorsing Woodcock that were so misleading, two television stations pulled them.

People who know or love a woman, especially a young one, should pause to think about Woodcock’s positions. So should people who are gay, or love someone who is. Anyone who ever tried to get by on minimum wage, or cares for Maine’s environment, must stop and think.

Woodcock’s party in Washington gave tax cuts to the rich, lied about Iraq, blocked stem-cell research funding and put this country deep in debt.

Mike Johnson, Windham