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Women's Issue
Sarah Palin and her church and her pastor have made themselves abundantly clear on issues of reproductive privacy -- there won't be any. In a Palin world, if my daughter wanted birth control, she wouldn't be able to get any, and if I wanted sex education to be taught in my son's school, I would be out of luck. If a girl I knew were raped and impregnated by her uncle and she elected to have an abortion, she would not be allowed to do so. She wouldn't even be allowed to take the morning after pill in case he got her pregnant. Maybe there's something you guys don't get about this. Bristol Palin's pregnancy is at the heart of what women and the right wing have been fighting over for thirty years, and it isn't abortion, it's privacy and the right to control your own reproductive choices. There will always be abortion, and there will always be choice, but Palin would like the choice to be illegal and punishable. Same with birth control.
I like you, Barack, but you don't get it either. The issues of birth control and abortion have been made into public issues by the right wing, and millions of women and girls have suffered because the right wing wants to impose its ideas of what women should do upon every woman in America including those who don't share and have never shared their values. So, Barack, I suggest that you, as a man, should do the backing off.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy, which her mother has known about for months, is at the heart of this battle. It has been shown over and over that abstinence education doesn't work, while sex education does work. Do I accept that teenagers have sex? You bet I do, and I tell the ones I have borne how to make it safe and what to watch out for and be careful of, girls and boys. Sarah Palin, for whatever reason, did not do the same thing, and yet she presumes, PRESUMES, to tell me as a mother and a woman what I can and cannot do with my body, and what I can and cannot provide for my children.
Sarah Palin has constructed her appeal to the right wing around this "social conservatism" in exactly the same way that John McCain has constructed his appeal around his aggressive foreign policy views. Both are equally political, and as political as Cheney's ideas about the unitary executive, for example. Women are citizens, too, and our privacy is a political football, and has been used as such to win elections for a generation, so I supposed you mean well, you guys who are telling me to back off, but you don't get it. So shut up.
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Well, I thought I'd already posted this, but guess it's gone ...Since then, I'd like to say I agree with Jonathan's comments; I know a few good men, in this sense, as well as a few not so savvy women...
My original point was in response to a comment re holding the 'stud' accountable. I doubt that many 'shotgun' marriages have been successful, or more than suffered in silence, particularly among teenagers. And it seems clear that this young woman would have been pressured, not only to give birth, but to keep the baby and marry the father.
How free and informed could the choice of a girl of her age and situation be?! Many less publicly pressured adolescent girls keep their babies, rather than (assuming they don't want abortions) giving them to childless couples (a truly brave act, as the film 'Juno' illustrated), based on idealistic fantasy.
Children raising children - whether their own or younger siblings - both takes away the childhood of the parenting child and fails to meet the emotional needs of the younger one. I've seen this in many families with whom I've worked; and, as the eldest of four, my own parenting role went beyond babysitting and guidance, making academic and social goals difficult to meet, and depleting much of the caregiving energy I'd need later on. I'm sure some have had more positive experiences as older siblings; I'm simply stating the damage it can do; often does.
The support of women's rights, it seems, is restricted only to the most convenient political situation: liberal women versus white males. When it's liberal women versus black males -- see Clinton vs. Obama -- the left dumps women's rights in favor of racial gains. When it's conservative women versus anybody, the left ignores women's rights completely. Gov. Palin's daughter made a choice, by the way.
Jane, you should know that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink: whether it's sex, drinking, or bed wetting when your son is eight years old - you can tell them, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to do it.
Your lack of support for this self-made woman is appalling. Your article makes the fememist movement look like a bunch of selfish, angry. old women wagging their fingers.
I'll try this for the 4th time...
There are no plans by a McCain/Palin administration to attempt to outlaw contraceptives. If a minor seeks to acquire them, the administration of them should be the responsibility of their parent - not the school nurse.
Hi everybody! First, I'm a man, so I don't get it. Just wanted to add sth nonetheless. While many have expressed the view that this is a battle women will have to fight, I don't entirely agree. That's because I don't see why the woman's right to privacy should be an issue that ONLY women can or should fight for. How sad a day that the idea of self-determination must be defended by women alone. So yes, I concede that this is first and foremost a women's issue. But no, you're not alone in this fight. Sarah Palin is a danger to any woman's self-determination. We have to make sure everybody gets that (and BTW, I'm pretty sure Obama gets it). The whole idea of courting female voters with this hell of a VP pick is an insult to anybody's intelligence, not only that of women. Let the right-wing misogynists don't get away with this.
Pure gold! Will someone please make this woman Vice President?
The Playdo Institute,
Handel Glassberg, President
"Maybe there's something you guys don't get about this.
Bristol Palin's pregnancy is at the heart of what women and the right wing have been fighting over for thirty years, and it isn't abortion, it's privacy and the right to control your own reproductive choices. There will always be abortion, and there will always be choice, but Palin would like the choice to be illegal and punishable. Same with birth control."
Yes - IT IS GOING TO BE UP TO THE WOMEN TO FIGHT THIS ONE.
Men do NOT "get it".
This is an OUTRAGE to the American woman.
This is a typical PATRONIZING ACTION by men in the Republican Party.
I am mad as hell, and I am NOT going to take any more of this.
Come on, ladies - this battle is OURS. All hands on deck, my dears.
It is a fight for our lives and the lives of our daughters.
ONWARD!
yeah yeah, I'm voting republican, better luck in 2012
So well said. Thank you, Ms. Smiley.
Right On, Jane. You go girl.
Okay.. this little Lincoln thing they just did purts me at odds...
Apparently the moderators don't want a blanket dispute - so I'll try point-by-point.
Ms. Smiley:
You assert that in Gov. Palin's Alaska, "If a girl I knew were raped and impregnated by her uncle and she elected to have an abortion, she would not be allowed to do so. "
You also know this to be untrue. The only power that a President Palin would ever have would be to nominate judges who would reverse the decision rendered in Roe v. Wade. If such were to happen, the legality of abortion would revert back to the will of the citizenry of the individual states. Some states would choose for it to be legal - some wouldn't. This would be the will of the people, not some fringe extreme. Period.
If a minor is raped, the decision over that minor's future should be the shared decision of the parents, not the government.
Period.
You are certainly mistaken as to what Palin could attempt as President.
A President Palin could seek to cut federal funds to states that permitted abortions. You may have noticed how speed limits across the nation were reduced to 55 mph state by state by the federal threat to highway funds in the 70s. This threat was so powerful that 55 became the National speed limit. The same tactic could be used to eliminate abortion everywhere.
Palin would clearly expand the Bush policy of prohibiting federal funding for sex education. Sadly, that policy may have contributed to her daughter's present condition. I don't care whether you are a Repulbican or Democrat, no one would hope for their daughter to be pregnant at 16 (she is now 17).
In addition, she would seek an amendment to prohibit abortion nationwide for any reason whatsoever.
I believe this woman may be personally well meaning, but she would be a danger to the nation.
She has indeed opposed abortion for any reason whatsoever: rape, incest, mother's life.
"A President Palin could seek to cut federal funds to states that permitted abortions."
Has she suggested that she would? Otherwise, you're making a ridiculous speculation.
"Palin would clearly expand the Bush policy of prohibiting federal funding for sex education. Sadly, that policy may have contributed to her daughter's present condition."
There isn't any evidence to support either of these claims. The Palin family plans on taking care of this child, so it really isn't any of your concerns. Her daughter's choice to get married and have a child is a family decision.
"she would seek an amendment to prohibit abortion nationwide for any reason whatsoever."
Once again, no evidence. And even if she did, it would have to be approved by majority in Congress (unlikely) and be ratified by supermajority of the states (unlikely).
I think that that point that Jane was making is that Palin is on the record as opposing abortion even in for victims of rape and incest. In other words, she soundly rejects your final statement about where the decision should rest. She and the rest of the anti-choice proponents want the state to be in the business of eliminating control of our own bodies for all women and girls. As for me, I demand the right to control my own reproductive freedom rather than put it back in the hands of the courts or the voters here in the state of Ohio. This is a simple matter of liberty, and women everywhere need to stand up for our ability to make the most personal of decisions for ourselves. Whether you accept it or not, the election of McCain/Palin puts that essential liberty in real jeopardy.
Ditto!
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Ms Smiley,
While I think I understand your point, it seems to me that you may be misdirecting your concern. I'm pretty sure, from reading his statement, that Senator Obama was saying "back off" with respect to obsessive media coverage of Bristol Palin herself. I certainly didn't read anything that suggested that SARAH Palin's anti-choice views were off-limits.
While the "Bristol Saga" is certainly a tempting anecdote to illustrate the possible consequences of Gov Palin's profoundly anti-feminist viewpoint, it is hardly unique. In fact, it is not even a particularly relevant one -- if all teen-aged pregnancies involved a known father and a large, well-to-do, supportive extended family, there would probably be fewer abortions than there now are.
Using the Bristol anecdote against Palin will inevitably be portrayed as "neener-neener" politics, which will undercut legitimate criticism of Palin's hard-right worldview. I think Obama's "back off Bristol" remarks were based both on personal decency and political perception, and I agree with them, although I do not always agree with Obama.
BTW, I am a white man, 60, who has always voted Dem, voted for Clinton in the primary, think she would have had an easier time in the general election, and support Obama wholeheartedly.
absolutely
What I wish I could ask: "Do free people get to act on their own beliefs, or only on yours?"
The world is so much simpler if you're right about everything.
Jane,
Palin's daughter went to public schools and Alaska public schools require sex education, including education regarding birth control. Does this mean that sex education in public schools is a failure?
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