Addressing a meeting of Planned Parenthood on Friday, President Obama accused pro-lifers of wanting to “turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century.”

Like any decade, the ’50s had its problems — racism, discrimination, sexism — but I’ll defend the ’50s on other grounds, if the president will defend the decade that followed. In the ’50s, for much of mainstream America, drugs were something you bought at a pharmacy with a prescription; living together meant getting married first, then having babies; abortion was not legal; our culture wasn’t the enemy; metal detectors were instruments one took to the beach to find loose change, and schools and streets were mostly safe.