TRACY QUAN is unimpressed with the latest research on “withdrawal” as a means of contraception. “Anxiety about contraception is both good and necessary. It’s like the anxiety you feel about flying through the windshield of your car that makes you buckle up. Even if there are a few short rides during which you didn’t buckle, do you really want road-safety experts telling you not to worry about it?”

I’ll note, though, that from my single-days experience women can be just as casual about contraception as men, and just as unhappy to be reminded of the need to, er, buckle up.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin McKinley writes: “Women can be casual about contraception, because it’s men who ‘get women pregnant’. Apparently women don’t really participate.” People do talk that way sometimes, don’t they?