Politics are in full bloom in North Carolina with presidential candidates preceding the azalea blossoms this spring.

And for the first time in memory the presidential primary is meaningful in this state. Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama are doing everything they can to tilt voters in their direction.

Opinion polls indicate that McCain may pick up a significant number of votes in the primary and general elections from people who describe themselves as political moderates. Such voters, particularly women, need to take a close look at McCain's votes on women's autonomy legislation while he has been in office. He has voted:

• Against requiring health plans to cover birth control.
• Against comprehensive sex education.
• Against international family planning funding.
• Against Roe v. Wade.
• Against funding to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies.
• Against funding for public education on emergency contraception.
• Against restoring Medicaid funding used for family planning services for low-income women.

McCain has a zero percent lifetime rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, having voted against even the most common sense measures on family planning, sex education and reproductive health. It is clear that McCain is anything but a moderate in female reproductive freedom issues.

It has become fashionable in some circles to conjecture that life begins when a woman's egg is fertilized by the sperm of a man. According to this dogma, anything happening after that which prevents childbirth is abortion. Several religious organizations, such as the Roman Catholic Church, have adopted this or a similar position even though there is no biblical or established biological basis for the theory.

This attitude completely ignores the fact that many such fertilized eggs do not attach to the uterine wall and are expelled from the woman's body as part of the normal menstrual cycle. It also does not recognize miscarriages that occur in 15 percent to 20 percent of pregnancies and would qualify as an abortion under their premise.

Pregnancy and childbirth carry a huge responsibility as a prelude to dozens of years of obligations as a parent and everything that goes with that status. Some people, usually men, advocate that once an egg is fertilized the woman should continue through to delivery even without her consent. I view this attitude as medieval and a denial of a woman's right to control her reproductive life.

Most normal pregnancies include an event called "quickening" somewhere around six months into the process when the woman feels what is described as a "fluttering" in her lower abdomen. This is often attributed to be the first signs of a new life in the woman's body. There could be some religious basis for this term as it occurs in the Apostles' Creed ("judge the quick and the dead") used in many church denominations. In addition to making reasonably good sense, it was also the standard used in the Common Law of England that is the basis for our legal system.

All of this is important, especially to women, as the North Carolina primary will occur on May 6 this year and the Board of Elections has noted the following key dates:

• Friday -- Voter registration forms due by 5 p.m. Registration can still occur at one-stop absentee voting locations. This is also the last day to change voter registration for the May 6 primary.
• April 17 -- One-stop absentee voting begins.
• April 29 -- Last day to request mail in or absentee ballots.
• May 3, 1 p.m. -- One-stop absentee voting ends.
• May 5 -- Absentee ballots must be received by 5 p.m.
• May 6 Primary Day -- Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

More information is available on the State Board of Elections Web site, www.sboe.state.nc.us