By now, readers, you have heard that the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, is going to be a grandmother. Yes, her 17-year old daughter is with child and unmarried. Well, whaddya know! Instead of seeing this as a bad thing, some extreme right-wing evangelicals are actually happy about it! Not only did the Governor herself decide to keep her Down Syndrome child, which I think is actually a wonderful thing to do -- but then again, she is married and has a good job -- but her daughter has expanded the right-to-life's argument by getting herself pregnant at 17! I can only hope she's better at picking out names than her parents!
So who's the baby daddy? A Levi Johnston, 18 years old, who (according to his MySpace page) says -- between all the expletives -- that he doesn't want to have kids.
But wait.... there's apparently going to be a shotgun wedding! After all, grandma is running for veep, we can't have her daughter pregnant and unmarried! So let's force her irresponsible daughter into a marriage with an immature doofus, why don't we? We have a political point to make here!
The right-wing evangelicals, in their zeal to push their right-to-life views, are using this girl. We all know they want to overturn Roe v. Wade, and boy, did they find a cheerleader in Gov. Palin, who wants to overturn it even in the event of rape or incest. Now, Bristol Palin has every right to keep her baby, and more power to her. But for the evangelical right to use this girl's unfortunate situation to make political hay is just downright disgusting.
I don't like abortion; but I have known a case where it was actually the most humane thing to do as the fetus was not viable outside the womb (and this was the unfortunate situation for a woman who was 38, married, and desperately wanted children). For people like her, if for no one else, we need to keep in mind that the next President will undoubtedly make some more appointments to the Supreme Court. Keep that in mind when you vote in November.
