Abortion

Sarah Palin is an extreme pro-life politician, taking the position that abortion should be illegal even in the cases of rape and/or incest. This is a position that only about 10% of the public agrees with, and it is to the right of the man at the top of the ticket, John McCain.

A while back, at the forum at Saddleback Church, McCain stated that he believed that not only does "life" begin at conception (a scientific fact) but that human rights do as well. This was disconcerting for me, since it ran contrary to his previously stated positions that abortion should be allowed in some extreme cases (rape, incest, life of the mother, etc.) , and was the first indication that a new, more extreme Republican position was taking shape.

While the campaign has been going on, and abortion has once again bubbled to the top of the list of issues voters are considering, it has come to light that the Bush administration is considering new regulations to allow pharmaceutical contracption (the Pill) to be defined as abortion so that doctors and pharmacists can refuse to distribute them to patients who have prescriptions.

Now, I'm not pro-abortion - I think the procedure should be avoided as much as possible, and I'm comfortable with many restrictions on late term abortions - but I fear that the elevation of a politician who would refuse the right of a woman to choose abortion even if they were raped is very dangerous for women's rights in this country. Palin should be held accountable for this position, and should be made to answer the same questions about the "human rights" of a fertilized egg as her running-mate. We also need to know whether or not she supports the new HHS regulations regarding birth control. It is likely that the McCain campaign will attempt to portray Palin as a feminist hero, but women need to know whether she has their interestes in mind before they consider voting for her.

Now that they have become a serious issue this fall, we need to do what we can to bring attention to the serious differences between the Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin tickets.