Yes, folks it is true.
While speaking at a "Right to Life" dinner the other night, she confessed that for a split second after finding out her child was to be born with DS, she considered having an abortion but thought better of it and decided not to.
That my friends is the point of Pro-Choice. I think so many people mistake being pro-choice as being pro-abortion. There are plenty of people I'm sure that are Pro-choice, yet anti-abortion.... they would NEVER do it if they were in that situation, but honor other people to make the best decision for their families.
Sarah Palin had a choice... she thought about it and went the pro-life route. Which, is ideal. I think that anybody you've asked that has had an abortion, wasn't particularly gung-ho or doing cartwheels about it. (maybe there are a couple of freaks out there.. but hey).
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14 comments:
LOVE this!!! Though I'm sure she doesn't see it that way at all.
Succinct and accurate...thank you! I briefly touched on this issue last fall here: http://gettingunstuck-michelle.blogspot.com/2008/10/call-me-liberal-i-guess.html , although more from the angle of freedom of choice and availability of social services making it easier for one to debate the "rightness" of those choices. Take away those service and freedoms and things go south pretty quick. I don't want to be around when that happens!
Bingo, Girl, you hit it right on the head, here. Pro-Choice means there is a choice, not an edict by white "Christian" men deciding a woman's fate. I've yet to meet one of these folks that's actually adopted any child who isn't a cute lil' one - meanwhile, the kids in foster care keep timing out of the system at 18 and have no support. They didn't get much of a choice there, either. Great post, as always, Jen.
I think it's a misnomer to characterize her as pro-choice (although I assume you meant that tongue-in-cheek) because I think she is knowingly anti-choice. She wants to have the freedom of choice taken from her because she might be tempted to do something the religious right condemns.
I met a librarian once who had been in a very fundamentalist home (with her husband) but as she read and saw more of the world, she started to question the rules and dictates. She broke free. It was unnerving for her at first to have choices; she spoke to me of the comfort of having a group like the church tell her what to do. It was interesting to see her come into her own.
Freedom isn't free. It requires thoughtfulness and the ability to question and examine issues and values.
Very good point.
If it wasn't a choice she wouldn't have thought about it.
Hmmmmm, imagine that.
Here's to choice. And, on that note, I think I'll choose to have a beer to celebrate the last weekend of Spring Break! Cheers, Kids!
I don't believe it is a mis-nomer at all. I knew she was pro-choice as soon as I found out she hid her pregnancy from everyone but her husband, for 7 months. I looked at my husband, and we both agreed there must have been some serious conversations behind their bedroom doors before they went public.
It's never an easy choice. As much as I am NOT a fan of Palin, woman to woman I know went through her head and I will drink a beer to that.
The problem that many pro-lifers have with the pro-choice issue is the cavalier way in which the option of abortion is tossed around. Yes, most people would not have one, even though it is legal. But it is a "choice" pushed on many single and/or teen mothers, whether overtly or implied. We don't think it is a good choice, and these young women are essentially forced into it. For them it is not really a choice at all.
In addition there is the issue of doctors and nurses and their forced participation in what is a barbaric procedure. They end up jeopardizing their careers by refusing.
While your stance sounds innocent and fair enough, there are many day-to-day complications and distortions of the issue of choice that disturb centrist pro-lifers like myself. By all means, keep abortion legal, if you want. But don't pretend that everyone has the same amount of choice.
I leave you with a thought: the issues of abortion and the death penalty are not so much a question of what it does to the fetus or to the sentenced mass murderer - it is an issue of what these practices do to us, the perpetrators.
I argue with my father (also pretty liberal - just not on this subject) about pro-choice issues a lot. His argument actually includes, "They have to deal with their maker." Ok, so let them! Isn't that sort of arguing for my side? Let them "deal with their maker." Whoever that may be.
When was the last time my dad had to remember to take his birth control pill?
SC,
You only hear that argument from anti-choice. Please tell me where are all these people who were forced to have abortions? Are you living in China? And all the nurses and doctors who were forced to participate?
Your argument is more than a little hard to shallow. If a nurse or doctor were anti-choice, why in the hell would they work at a abortion clinic?
As a late teen who used PP for contraceptives and BC pills, you couldn't be more wrong. The nurses at PP want everyone to be responsible and NOT get pregnant. At least they're providing truthful sex information unlike Bush's abstinence program which has done nothing but make the teenage birth rate sky rocket and a resurgence of out dated STDs. Have you heard? Syphilis is making a comeback in late teens and early 20 year olds. How nice. You'd rather have people dying of AIDS and sterile from untreated STDs than pass out condoms at school.
Death by AIDS/STDs and ignorance...Death by death penalty what's the difference?
Death by ignorance...Death by death penalty what's the difference?
It's still death by our government.
I used Planned Parenthood in my teens and they were very helpful to me. They explained all of the risks of unprotected sex and even discussed abstinence as a choice.
Someone tried to argue before on my blog about how PP is the root of all that's evil. If you are a doctor that doesn't want to perform abortions, no one forces them to. My OB doesn't perform them.
Many pro-choicers don't want to see abortions made unavailable to victims of incest/rape or for situations where the life of the mother is at risk. What is the point of trying to save the unborn life if only to give up the mother's life.
Ahh, its the ultimate "Gotcha!" Although I'm sure that Sarah sees it quite differently.
I'm a self professed Anti Aborton Pro Choice proponent. As I see it, abortion probably one of the worst options when dealing with an unwanted or unanticipated pregnancy, but thats the dig: It is an OPTION. Great piece, Jen.
As usual, you all are a bunch of smart ladies. Well said everyone!
I always ask pro-lifers why they don't adopt an "unwanted" child, living in foster care, just waiting for someone to love them. I mean, the funding for these poor kids has been cut so much as of late, and yet pro-lifers don't want anyone to get an abortion. I'm not saying people should get one, I just think the option should be there, because really women will get them anyway if they really want one. If there will be more children here if abortion were illegal, then shouldn't we be supporting those kids that have been abandoned?
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