by When scheming politicians like Sarah Palin use the private lives of their children to sharpen their public policy points — the moderate middle recoils in horror as we begin to realize what she decides for herself is precisely what she wants for the rest of us. Using her Down Syndrome child as the tip of her policy spear, Palin calls abortion an “atrocity,” and she refuses to consider rape or incest in any decision to abort a foetus. Palin wants all pregnancies to end in live births. What the Sarah Palin mandate means for the rest of us is clear and simple and frightening: I had a Down Syndrome baby, and so will you!”
Over 90% of women carrying a Down Syndrome foetus abort the pregnancy and I promise you that 90% is not made up of only liberal women from the East Coast. Conservative women have Down Syndrome abortions because they know it is easier on the family and — in the longer, prescient, view of the disabled foetus — that terminating an ill-conceived pregnancy is better than pressing through a broken birth against the tides and wants of nature.
What’s lost on me in Palin’s strong-armed anti-abortion stance is how she even knew she was carrying a Down Syndrome foetus. All proper doctors will have “the conversation” with pregnant women over 40 about the risk of having a Down Syndrome foetus — but the only way we can currently know if a foetus has Down Syndrome or not is to do an amniotic fluid test. A blood test from the mother alone is not yet an accurate enough indicator for foetal Down Syndrome.
That means Sarah Palin had to agree to the Down Syndrome screening and that’s the hypocritical proof of why so many of us have a problem with her hard marrying of religious and political dogma for her private benefit: If she were truly anti-abortion in all conditions and memes, she never would have had the test done for Down Syndrome. Why have an invasive test if it won’t change your mind about keeping the foetus? Palin had the test. That decision speaks volumes against her anti-abortion stance.
If the idea of having babies is to carry on the gene pool and to make
society a greater place, then must we impale our private values into the greater good of the community?
If we knowingly and willingly give birth to babies that will not contribute to society as working adults in any meaningful or everlasting way — what is the point of extending to those foetuses a future lived on welfare or in sustained public care when their parents are not longer able to tend them?
Are we to become a Pillow Angel and Down Syndrome nation just because we refuse to heed the warnings and insights of modern medicine?
Women must own their bodies and make all decisions concerning that necessary and protected privacy.
Do we wish to doom the hopes and dreams of our young women — raped and abused in the prime of their lives — by then requiring them to carry their unwanted babies to term — Down Syndrome or not — and robbing them of their individual schooling and work hopes by forcing them to tend a crib and a diaper pail that they never wished for or wanted?
Palin’s Down Syndrome child gives her an uppity, scolding, suffering that she can use to push her conservative, anti-abortion message: “I had a Down Syndrome child, and so can you. Yes, you were raped by your father and are having his baby, but I had a Down Syndrome child, and so you can suffer, too.”
When a pit bull attacks — do we just bark or are we required so stand up and bite back?
This is certainly a blunt confrontation. I think there’s a lot to her that does come off push and bossy. Some like that style. I think it’s okay as long as you don’t push other people off the boat to get your own way. I don’t think she takes much liking to dissenting opinions and you sorta need to hear all sides to lead people.
Anne —
We need to fully examine and test her public positions against our private expectations. We may be drawn to her incredible surface beauty but what is waiting for us in policy and practice beneath the skin?
Hi David,
I was under the impression uneducated people are easy to brainwash.
I really wonder this “idea” to be supported by people belonging to the most developed country.
Katha —
Yes, most Americans do not read or really pay attention to world politics. They only want someone like them mirrored in their president. They do not want a president smarter than they are — and with that philosophy, we are condemned to be ruled by emotion instead of intellect.
Hi David,
It is not being ruled by emotions – it’s about being ruled by “bias” – which is even more dangerous.
Doesn’t sound very healthy. People need to question any obsessed notion by all means.
That’s an interesting distinction that I don’t think Palin is making, Katha. For her there’s no bias, it is purely God’s Will that we are in Iraq and that all babies are carried to term no matter what. I don’t find that a bias, really, because it is what she believes — while I believe belief is more emotion than intellect, more faith than science.
Hi David,
I am trying to get it and failing miserably.
The day God will plant a baby in my womb without me sleeping with anyone or without any medical help – I probably would start seeing it as “God’s will”…before that – it’s my will.
No religion talks about war – the interpretation is absolutely manmade and manipulated.
If I believe in it then either I am classic category dumb or I am just using it as a cunning way persuasion.
Peroid.
“Healthy belief” teaches one to question.
I’m with you, Katha, but the fundamentalist Christian nation is not. Children are a gift from God. God smites enemies of the “good” — see the Old Testament for examples. God is the One Creator. There is no personal choice because any choice you make was actually pre-decided by God’s plan for you.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
http://bible.cc/revelation/22-13.htm
http://www.tektonics.org/guest/ddwao.html
I know David, I read the Bible as a part of my school course but never thought it anything more than an interesting script.
In every religion God says – “I am the creator”.
Well, I read these iwth an academic interest, enjoyed the gist of it – but never thought anything beyond that.
Actually all extremists in all religions see things from this perspective only.
I also appreciate religious texts, Katha, and it is amazing to see how many “opposite” religions often share the same values even though they may use different labels. The practice of blind belief in any unauthenticated text is dangerous. Text does not change. The world around us does. We cannot wed our minds to one way and that way only because we’re too easily bent into broken. We need to be relaxed and open to new thoughts and ideas and change.
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