Log In | Register
Well it's been in the news long enough for everyone in the country to know. Sara Palin's 17 year-old, daughter is pregnant. And like most parents, Sara wants to protect her daughter and her family. She is asking for privacy.
"We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."
Sarah and her husband have every right to request privacy and expect that the media (and the rest of us) to give their family the respect we would expect for our own families.
As a mother of 3, myself, I will honor that request. I will by-pass any articles I see in the newspapers, or on-line about Palin's young daughter. I will not listen to any news broadcasts about her daughter's situation either.
All I ask in return is that Sara Palin give the rest of America the privacy she requests for her own family.
In 2006 when answering a question about abortion in a Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire for Eagle Forum Sara Palin wrote the following:
"I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor's determination that the mother's life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent's life."
Palin at least accepts that there are times when a mother's life is in danger. But that is about the only circumstance in which she thinks abortion should be legal. During a candidate debate Palin was asked about rape and abortion. Anchorage Daily News reported from the debate as follows:
"The candidates were pressed on their stances on abortion and were even asked what they would do if their own daughters were raped and became pregnant.
Palin said she would support abortion only if the mother's life was in danger. When it came to her daughter, she said, 'I would choose life.'"
Here is the rub. Abortion is not all that simple. No one - not even our most knowledgeable scientists, can tell at what exact moment life begins (or ends). Our culture respects this reality for end of life issues. We give human beings, doctors, and families the privacy they need to make their own decisions regarding end of life.
Families all over this country, day-in and day-out, are required by circumstances beyond their control to make decisions they don't want to make. Even as I write this article I wonder how many families are consulting with their doctors (in private) and determining whether they should end all extraordinary measures to keep a loved one breathing. This is the sad reality, none of us likes this reality, but it is something we must all grapple with. Since no scientist can tell us for sure when life ends, we are often called upon to make heart-wrenching decisions. And we are allowed to do this in private.
The beginning of life has no easy answers either. Does life begin at conception? Does it begin with the first heart beat? Does it begin with the first recorded brain wave? Or, does it begin with the ability to survive for pro-longed periods of time outside the mother's womb?
There are no easy answers. Each of us must grapple with the questions in our own hearts and the answers may vary by circumstance and by person. If a woman is raped, she should have the same right to privacy that Sara Palin is requesting for her own family.
Rape is traumatic enough without the government of this country forcing a woman to carry a resulting pregnancy to term. What right does our government have to intrude upon the privacy of a woman just raped and forbid a doctor or hospital from offering a morning after pill?
For that matter, what right does our government have to intrude in private family matters such as Gretchen Voss and her family had to deal with. Gretchen was eighteen weeks pregnant when she found out her baby had severe birth defects. Gretchen's description of finding out follows:
"Instead of cinnamon and spice, our child came with technical terms like hydrocephalus and spina bifida. The spine, she said, had not closed properly, and because of the location of the opening, it was as bad as it got. What they knew -- that the baby would certainly be paralyzed and incontinent, that the baby's brain was being tugged against the opening in the base of the skull and the cranium was full of fluid -- was awful. What they didn't know -- whether the baby would live at all, and if so, with what sort of mental and developmental defects -- was devastating. Countless surgeries would be required if the baby did live. None of them would repair the damage that was already done."
Gretchen and her husband felt they had no choice and terminated the pregnancy. This was a heart wrenching decision for them, one in which they consulted with their own families and received support. Their decision was made in private, as it should have been.
I am pro-choice. That does not mean I am pro-abortion. Pro-choice means I don't feel I have the right to push my personal beliefs about the beginning of life upon another person, or family. Personally I don't know when life begins. I know when I was pregnant I felt life inside of me. I also know that if someone I loved was raped I would support her decision to terminate a pregnancy. I also know that if a couple told me they had just found out the news that their child would be born with severe birth defects; I would defend their right to make decisions for this child in private. And whatever decision they made, I would support them. Pro-choice means I believe in the right of women, parents and doctors to make their own decisions - in private - without government interference.
I will respect Sara Palin's request for privacy in the matter of her daughter's pregnancy. I will also ask that she give the rest of America the same privacy to grapple with their personal decisions in private and without intrusion - either by the press or the American Government.
