At a recent function, I had a delightfully charming female dinner companion. We chatted about movies, television, and current events. It wasn’t until the end of the event that I learned that politically we were miles apart.

She told me of a gala she attended that featured Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and a former head of Planned Parenthood, Faye Wattleton. I politely shook my head when she asked if I wanted to join this group, explaining that I was anti-abortion.

The Center for the Advancement of Women sponsored the Fonda function, and my new acquaintance asked if I wouldn’t agree that Planned Parenthood advanced the cause of women’s rights. In as few words as possible, I intimated that most feminist groups are hypocritical, supporting only the women who agree with their social agenda. I explained how they backstabbed a feminist pioneer who challenged women’s groups for not addressing the abuse of women living under Islamic law, Phyllis Chesler. They also ignored all the women who accused President Clinton of assault and sexual harassment. As for Jane Fonda, the less said, the better.

I didn’t want to get on a soapbox, but I felt like asking my friend if she knew about the history of the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist who would have been very displeased at the idea of a black woman leading her group. No matter how much her heirs have tried to sanitize her history, her words mark her as a woman who embraced Nazism, racism, terrorism, and abortion at any time, for any reason.

In a well-researched book, “Intellectual Morons” by Daniel J. Flynn, a chapter on Sanger charges that she “took a peculiar interest in ensuring that sterilization programs and birth-control clinics focused on blacks.” I’m curious whether anyone has asked Faye Wattleton what she thinks about Sanger’s “black program.”

Monday is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a date that is celebrated by some feminists but mourned by others due to the 48 million lives aborted since 1973. Unfortunately, my bum knee will prevent me from joining the March for Life this year. It is focusing on a very timely issue: The theme of Monday’s march is “Thou Shalt Protect the Equal Right to Life of Each Innocent Human in Existence at Fertilization. No Exception! No Compromise!”

The House just passed an Embryonic Stem Cell Research bill that President Bush has promised to veto. Considering the amazing results of stem cell research from umbilical cord blood and most recently amniotic fluid, there is no longer a need to kill embryos for stem cells. Yet Congress is still apparently anxious to waste taxpayer money on junk science. Why?

Another topic my friend brought up was global warming and how it was approaching a crisis level. Not necessarily, I told her. So many people who are normally rational have fallen under the spell of Vice President Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth.” The reality is that no matter what changes the planet undergoes, human beings can’t do much about it. There was global warming before there were humans; I give more credence to theories citing cow flatulence as the cause than anything that the globe-trotting, fuel-guzzling Mr. Gore comes up with.

Finally, my companion and I parted with promises to continue our newfound friendship, and I am looking forward to that. If we can debate the issues that are polarizing the nation in a civil manner, with facts and without name-calling, maybe Congress can do the same.