Indiana Jones and the Temple of Fail:
Couric: If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?
Palin: I am pro-life. And I’m unapologetic in my position that I am pro-life. And I understand there are good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion, and when it should be allowed. Do I respect people’s opinions on this. Now, I would counsel to choose life. I would also like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to take it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want them, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, and adoptions made easier.
Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?
Palin: I’m saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you’re asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That’s nothing I would ever support.
Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?
Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and save, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …
Couric: And so you don’t believe in the morning-after pill?
Palin: … I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven’t spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.
Couric: I’m sorry, I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning-after pill.
Palin: Personally, and this isn’t McCain-Palin policy …
Couric: No, that’s OK, I’m just asking you.
Palin: But personally, I would not choose to participate in that kind of contraception.
Because, look. How youfeel is so completely not the question here. What you yourself wouldcounsel is not the question. I couldn’t care less if Sarah Palin has feelings one way or another about anything. I’m not going to make out with her, I’m hiring her to run the place where I live, so it’s what she plans todo with those feelings, how she plans touse them to make policy, that matters to me.
I don’t care if Sarah Palin wants to ban all morning-after pills from her household or if she wants to pour milk on a bowl of them in the morning. Her personal choices are, well, her personal choices, and personal choices and the valuing thereof actually is at the heart of where I come down on this issue, which is that so long as old white dudes and Sarah Batshit McCrazyhat Palin are in charge of making policy based on what they think they feel, I’ll be over here.
Also, she’s all for contraception?
And thinks we should listen to her about her personal choices?
And … I’m sorry, my head just exploded, thefuck she says? This is one of the most incoherent articulations of the pro-life philosophy I’ve ever heard, and I’ve discussed this issue with drunk people at parties. Quoth Palin:
I’m saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in.
I have actually ZERO problem with this, as being pro-choice means I support Sarah Palin’s choice to open her trap and counsel whatever pathetic soul goes to her for help in these situations however Sarah Palin likes. I can’t imagine being so hard up for advice I would seek out Madame Mooseburgers for wisdom, but I’m spoiled with good friends and smart relatives. Maybe someone else out there isn’t so lucky. She’s free to counsel. She’s free to do that, you see, because the person she’s counseling has the freedom to make achoice.
Lord God.
And, um, if you’re asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That’s nothing I would ever support.
Yet she favors making abortion illegal. Which would … lead to exactly that. If abortion is murder, and a woman who has one is murdering her child, then shouldn’t it logically follow that that woman go to prison? Wait, or is it just the doctor who goes to jail, because the woman is a sinner in need of saving? I can’t keep my Politically Convenient Moral Slip n Slide inflated all the time, people.
Help me out here. Is what she’s saying here not a huge betrayal of the “moral values voters” she and the political punditry claims she represents so faithfully? Shouldn’t she, as the Strong Moral Conservative and the Religious Right’s Favorite Daughter, be out here promising to hunt down every woman who so much as drives past a clinic and locking her up for conspiracy to commit?
Unless, as always, all this moral-values horseshit is just the usual example of the pro-life movement as the Republican Party’s 3 a.m. booty call. They want you bad now, guys, your ass and your money and your votes, but try getting them to return a text the next day.
A.