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.

Comments

[Audrey5010]

Ms. Smiley:
I like your article.
I think the fight is about control over women, period. How best to do that if not by taking from her control over her own body and control over what is fundamentally female, conceiving and bearing children?
I understand why men would want to take away this control from women; I've never understood why a woman would want to do so.
I've said time and time again there should be a way to fix men so they can conceive and bear children.
Will you consider writing an article on why a woman would be pro-life? I would like to know. If you limit your article to "religious beliefs," I still won't have an answer unless you also include rape and incest.
It's getting to the point where the unborn child has equal or more rights than the mother.
If this is the way we truly want to go, and to be fair and get to the heart of the matter, I propose: sperm and ova have equal or more protection than their male and female carriers, respectively. This way, the law has control over everybody's body.

[southernartist]

I've long been a fan of Jane Smiley. She is a clear thinker and she's got this one exactly right. It goes to the heart of what women have been fighting for most of my adult life.

This veep choice goes directly to McCain's judgement about what it would take to win. It's pandering, cynical and demeaning to women who have been on the front lines of fighting for women's rights for forty years. It's not about Sarah Palin--it's about John McCain's need to win at almost any cost.

[MourningDude]

There are millions of abortions of perfectly healthy fetuses that were the product of consensual sex.

They are abortions of convenience, nothing more.

BHO dodged the question about life issues at Saddleback by saying it was above his pay grade. Meanwhile, he's been on board the global warming bandwagon for years already. That's another subject that really is above his pay grade, but he has not refrained from taking a position, and thinks we should err on the side of environmental responsibility. All that pro-lifers want is to err on the side of life. It's not so outrageous.

[Finnegan569]

I can tell by the tone of your article that you're for Hillary.. Do you REALLY think at this point that Mr. Obama should have said that Bristol's preganancy is open for public consumption and go on a single issue that would doom him for sure.. Bottom line women should have the right to make their own decisions period which Barack Obama has said over and over.. And he would never overturn Roe v. Wade..

Where is NOW and Emily's List? They should be out in front on this.. I was hard pressed to find anything on their websites about Bristol Palin's pregnancy highlighting the issues of a non-planned pregnancy and even talk about potential diseases/stds. Jane, when the Repubs finally let the media and other groups interview Gov. Palin all of us women should get in line to speak to her..

[gettysburg]

The righteous indignation of Sarah Palin and those like her had a Democratic candidates daughter gotten pregnant would have been nauseating and appalling. This hands off appraoach is pure garbage. Let's show Sarah Palin and those like her what the meaning of the phrase"what goes around, comes around" means. Go after her, and go hard.

[ArmchairPatriot]

Great post Jane!

[frankel1205]

Fantastic post, Ms. Smiley. I agee with you 2,000%!! As always, the right wing is using a woman to roll back the clock for the rest of us. My heart goes out to young Bristol, but her mother has NO right to tell the rest of us how to raise our kids and to deny women of America their own private, reproductive decisions. They don't get it, because they don't want to get it. We are experiencing the influence of religious fundamentalism on this country. These people are like the people in the Middle East that we are supposedly "liberating"!!

[elbzee]

Seems to be a strong indication that women haven't progressed very far. Odd that the right to choose is such a threat to conservatives. Has just never made any sense to me.

[Kahawa]

Yes, yes, yes. You are so right. And there's another twist: Sarah Palin, the antichoice candidate, has repeatedly stated that both she and her daughter "chose" to have their babies. Well, if they don't believe a woman has a right to choose, then they shouldn't use the verb "to choose." You can't have it both ways: no right to choose, but you make a choice? Uh-uh.

[frynpan]

This is totally the key!!! Emphasize that these woman are choosing, because there is a choice. See they can feel even more self-righteous because of abortion rights.

[Kerris]

Brilliantly said, Jane Smiley! Thank you!!

[plebeianswillrevolt]

Now I see the point of the Rove selection of Palin, it was intentional and probably inhanced by the fact of the 17yr old pregnancy. Energize the base.

Let all Republicans and Democrats battle to the death over abortion and gay rights one more time.

Very smart of the repubs. Say what you want, they do know how to play a trump card.

[DixieChic]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying this and doing so very eloquently. I have been thinking the exact same thing that this whole mess with Palin points out the sad and dangerous truth about the TRUE far right "christian" agenda - TO RELIEVE WOMEN OF THEIR RIGHT TO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM. It is about social engineering at its worst.

[gdwtch52]

Jane,
While I agree that the real issue is privacy and choice, I don't agree that Gov. Plain's daughter or he boyfriend are any of our business. I hope that her pregnancy was her choice and not some sort of "punishment" for being human.

[Leota2]

C'mon Jane--you know what Obama said was being politic. And you know this country would crucify him if he'd said anything else--then we'd MOST definitely have John and Sarah in the WH.

But it seems your anger is not allowing you to read between the lines. Obama cannot stop you from saying any damned thing you want because let's face it--the blogosphere is vetting this offensive person who wants to take choice, contraception and basic reproductive rights from women.

Keep your bow and arrow cocked, but remember to aim at the right person.

[XME]

As a woman, there were my feelings exactly...thank you!

[lecraftygirl]

jane, thank you! you are spot on. i only hope that all women open their eyes and very soon... it's about our rights for CHOICE!