The Daily Show has been hitting the Republicans about the word ‘choice’. Palin, et. al., have been talking about the decision by Bristol Palin to get married to her 18 year old beau and have the baby.
William Saletan talks more about it. He points out that the Palins, elder, made the choice for young Bristol. Sarah Palin is pushing an agenda in Alaska where women how get pregnant have no choice.
The argument for parental consent laws is that if girls can’t even get their ears pierced without parental approval, they certainly shouldn’t be allowed to get something as serious as an abortion. As Palin’s spokeswoman put it last year, “She feels parental consent is reasonable because it is required in nearly every aspect of a child’s life.” But that logic is backward. The more profoundly a decision affects a girl’s future, the more vital it is that no one, even her parents, be authorized to veto it. And nothing short of death alters a person’s life more profoundly than bringing a child into the world. It is the moment when you cease to be the primary purpose of your own existence.
The Alaska Supreme Court understood this. The “uniquely personal physical, psychological, and economic implications of the abortion decision … are in no way peculiar to adult women,” the justices wrote. Palin, a five-time mother, understands it, too. She says Bristol will “realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child.”
Palin claims the decision was Bristol’s. But had Bristol faced the same predicament a year ago, and had she chosen not to bear the child, her mother would have demanded the right to force that result. As governor, Palin fought for this authority. Two weeks after the Alaska court’s 3-2 ruling against her, she replaced one of the justices in the majority. She called for a state constitutional amendment to reverse the ruling. This year, with the court stacked in her favor, she endorsed a bill that would send the court an even tougher parental consent law. She even proposed a special session to pass the bill.
Watch the video of Palin answering abortion questions during a 2006 gubernatorial debate. “If your daughter were pregnant … what would be your reaction and advice?” asks a reporter. “I would choose life,” she answers, smiling. The reporter persists: What if your daughter had been raped? “Again, I would choose life,” she replies. Not she would choose. I would choose.
Saletan is right. This isn’t really a parental consent law. It is a parental choice law.
I wonder if the Palins would support the right for parents to choose for their children if the parents chose abortion?