A very pregnant pause for Palin
Juliana D'Amico
Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Opinion
I 'll admit that when I heard about Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy, I was a little disappointed. And that may be my political understatement of the 2008 presidential campaign. What was McCain thinking picking Palin? What was Palin thinking accepting the nomination? How embarrassing for a candidate who had been against sex education in schools? How embarrassing for our nation?
The toll that this took on the Palin family was incredible - we heard it, we saw it, and most of us contribu-ted to it. But they say that moments like this break us or they make us. And for Sarah Palin, a pro-life candidate, this made her.
This is because Palin has lived out two among the several reasons to have an abortion: a pregnant unmarried teenager and a handicapped child. Her answer to both, even when more than 80 percent of Down syndrome children are aborted, was no. When most of the world would not think twice about having an abortion in both circumstances, Palin did. And her courage has given her the ethos that both pro-life and pro-choice supporters can respect.
It is so easy for me to be a pro-life supporter. I can sit there, hold my sign and talk the talk. I have never experienced any reason for me to have an abortion. So I can feel pretty good about what side of the aisle I stand on when it involves abortion.
Both mother and daughter, Sarah and Bristol Palin, experienced two very big reasons to have an abortion.
And when one looks at the expected circumstances, that I'm sure the Palins dreaded, and the circumstances that played out, abortion just may have seemed like the easiest way out, the right choice and the most healthy and normal option for the sake of the Palin family.
This is best observed with Bristol's case.
Nobody would ever have known. Bristol did not have to tell anybody. Her parents could have easily had the best doctors perform the abortion in secret. There would be no embarrassing, scarring newspaper articles that accused the baby of being a result of incest.
There would be no "this is how having a baby will change your life talk" from your parents. She would not have to wear maternity clothes while still trying to enjoy life as a girl. There would be no morning sickness, no craving food and no birthing complications while she was trying to do homework. There would be no looks or whispers that all too well communicated what the girl staring at you was thinking.
No there would not be. There would be an operation. You would go to sleep, and when you would wake up "your problem" would be gone.
Now, as a pro-life supporter and female, I know that for the sake of argument I have completely one-sided this situation. There could be many health risks, guilt and other problems that easily happen when you kill another human being inside you that God put there.
But, wouldn't it be easy and convenient enough for Bristol to have not thought about that side?
Now, how many of us would give having an abortion a second thought when we were faced with the future of Bristol Palin? Unfortunately, I think many would. It is a time when jealousy for your own future seems like a very justifiable act of looking out for yourself. I wondered what I would have done.
In and out of politics, pro-life women are many times accused of being out of touch with their sex. They are told that they wouldn't understand the pain, fear and shame that an untimely or unhealthy pregnancy brings.
But while that may be true in a small degree, Sarah Palin is one who can stand in the political arena and say that she is pro-life, and people think twice before they tell her that she has no clue what she is talking about.
Juliana is a political science and speech major. She learned to hula this summer. Maloha.
The toll that this took on the Palin family was incredible - we heard it, we saw it, and most of us contribu-ted to it. But they say that moments like this break us or they make us. And for Sarah Palin, a pro-life candidate, this made her.
This is because Palin has lived out two among the several reasons to have an abortion: a pregnant unmarried teenager and a handicapped child. Her answer to both, even when more than 80 percent of Down syndrome children are aborted, was no. When most of the world would not think twice about having an abortion in both circumstances, Palin did. And her courage has given her the ethos that both pro-life and pro-choice supporters can respect.
It is so easy for me to be a pro-life supporter. I can sit there, hold my sign and talk the talk. I have never experienced any reason for me to have an abortion. So I can feel pretty good about what side of the aisle I stand on when it involves abortion.
Both mother and daughter, Sarah and Bristol Palin, experienced two very big reasons to have an abortion.
And when one looks at the expected circumstances, that I'm sure the Palins dreaded, and the circumstances that played out, abortion just may have seemed like the easiest way out, the right choice and the most healthy and normal option for the sake of the Palin family.
This is best observed with Bristol's case.
Nobody would ever have known. Bristol did not have to tell anybody. Her parents could have easily had the best doctors perform the abortion in secret. There would be no embarrassing, scarring newspaper articles that accused the baby of being a result of incest.
There would be no "this is how having a baby will change your life talk" from your parents. She would not have to wear maternity clothes while still trying to enjoy life as a girl. There would be no morning sickness, no craving food and no birthing complications while she was trying to do homework. There would be no looks or whispers that all too well communicated what the girl staring at you was thinking.
No there would not be. There would be an operation. You would go to sleep, and when you would wake up "your problem" would be gone.
Now, as a pro-life supporter and female, I know that for the sake of argument I have completely one-sided this situation. There could be many health risks, guilt and other problems that easily happen when you kill another human being inside you that God put there.
But, wouldn't it be easy and convenient enough for Bristol to have not thought about that side?
Now, how many of us would give having an abortion a second thought when we were faced with the future of Bristol Palin? Unfortunately, I think many would. It is a time when jealousy for your own future seems like a very justifiable act of looking out for yourself. I wondered what I would have done.
In and out of politics, pro-life women are many times accused of being out of touch with their sex. They are told that they wouldn't understand the pain, fear and shame that an untimely or unhealthy pregnancy brings.
But while that may be true in a small degree, Sarah Palin is one who can stand in the political arena and say that she is pro-life, and people think twice before they tell her that she has no clue what she is talking about.
Juliana is a political science and speech major. She learned to hula this summer. Maloha.
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