Palin and Abortion

Here are some thoughts about Sarah Palin and abortion:

1. I watched part of an Alaska gubernatorial debate, in which Palin said that she personally would choose life if a woman were raped and wanted to have an abortion. She said the same thing in one of the Katie Couric interviews. In the gubernatorial debate, a question that came up concerned what Palin would advise her daughter if she (her daughter) became pregnant. (What foresight!) In the Couric interview, Palin was responding to a general policy question.

What's my point? I don't understand why Palin is using the word "personally" in a policy discussion, since policy concerns other people than her personally. She should just say that the child is a life, even if it's conceived through rape.

2. In the Couric interview, Palin said she doesn't want to jail women who have abortions. And she's the first one who mentioned "jail" in that discussion. Katie Couric didn't bring that up! Palin should have just left the issue of penalties untouched, unless Katie explicitly mentioned it.

But doesn't someone have to go to jail if abortion is against the law? We can have a fine, but can we really put a monetary price on human life? I guess that depends on how you interpret Exodus 21:22! In any case, I think the physician should be penalized in some way.

3. I wasn't too impressed with Palin in that part of the Couric interview, but I just love what she said about the sanctity of life on Hugh Hewitt's radio show (see here):

"Ironic too, Hugh, that some would consider my position on life and trying to usher in a culture of life, respecting the sanctity of life in America, that that is seen as an extreme position when to me, an extreme position is one that Barack Obama took when he was in the Illinois State Senate, not even supporting a measure that would ban partial birth abortion, not even supporting a measure that would during, after a botched abortion and that baby’s born alive, allowing medical care to cease and allowing that baby to die. That to me is extreme. That’s so far, far left it’s certainly out of the mainstream of America. To me, that is the extreme position, not my position of just wanting that culture of life to be respected and not wanting government to sanction the idea of ending life."

No kidding! I love Palin's unequivocal defense of life in that statement. And I'm getting sick of liberals portraying Sarah Palin as an extremist on the abortion issue, as if they speak for the American public. The Republican Party has won elections in the past, even with a strong pro-life platform.

4. In last night's Katie Couric interview, Palin answered the same questions that Couric asked of Joe Biden. Biden seemed to suggest that Roe v. Wade allowed for restrictions on abortion in the second and third trimesters. I've heard this before about the third trimester, but I didn't know that Roe v. Wade had such a policy for the second.

I was wondering why Roe v. Wade has been cited against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, when it allows restrictions on abortion in the third semester. It turns out that its companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, requires an exception for the "health" of the mother, which can encompass "all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the wellbeing of the patient" (see here). That allows a woman to come up with all sorts of flimsy excuses to abort her baby! "Having a baby makes me feel depressed, so I want an abortion!," a woman can say.

When Sarah Palin was asked to name Supreme Court decisions (other than Roe) with which he disagreed, she should have said Doe v. Bolton, rather than just drawing a blank.

5. Palin said she supported the right to privacy, and Katie Couric responded that this was the basis for Roe. The implication is that Palin doesn't know anything about the Roe v. Wade decision.

Look, a person can support the right to privacy, without endorsing Roe v. Wade. I remember John Roberts defending the right to privacy in one of his confirmation hearings. Plus, why does the right to privacy allow a woman to kill her own child? Privacy rights don't apply to laws against child molestation or spousal abuse, even if they're done in the privacy of one's own home.

Well, I'm hoping tonight turns out all right. You can be sure that I'll do a write-up about it!