Frustrated
This election has made me not want to follow politics anymore...mostly because it's all really frustrating and ultimately gross.
BUT, I really do hate the way that Palin's pro-life stance has been depicted. Media and Republicans continue to describe her pro-life politics--then say things like "her pro-life stance was tested when at 42 Palin decided to keep her downs syndrome baby". Her pro-life stance was not TESTED--this rhetoric implies that women who do not hold this political ideology are not faced with difficult decisions concerning pregnancy. In fact, for a woman against choice it is not a test at all...abortion was never a possibility in this situation given her ideological commitments.
Further, this sort of rhetoric means that only when a pregnancy is terminated is someone not pro-life. This means that pro-choice is boiled down once again to simply a defense of abortion rights--instead of things like contraception accessibility, medical care and awareness, health, etc. Democrats should stop allowing Republicans the moral high ground on this issue--they don't deserve the high ground--they deny contraception to individuals who otherwise want to be responsible, then would force them have children, then, in an ideal republican world, would deny them the government resources encouraging them to pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
If I were to get pregnant it would not test my pro-choice stance if I decided to have the child OR even if I terminated the pregnancy. Women are not just walking around terminating pregnancies because they don't want to have to deal with the inconvenience of taking care of a special needs child.
Had to get the thoughts down somewhere.
BUT, I really do hate the way that Palin's pro-life stance has been depicted. Media and Republicans continue to describe her pro-life politics--then say things like "her pro-life stance was tested when at 42 Palin decided to keep her downs syndrome baby". Her pro-life stance was not TESTED--this rhetoric implies that women who do not hold this political ideology are not faced with difficult decisions concerning pregnancy. In fact, for a woman against choice it is not a test at all...abortion was never a possibility in this situation given her ideological commitments.
Further, this sort of rhetoric means that only when a pregnancy is terminated is someone not pro-life. This means that pro-choice is boiled down once again to simply a defense of abortion rights--instead of things like contraception accessibility, medical care and awareness, health, etc. Democrats should stop allowing Republicans the moral high ground on this issue--they don't deserve the high ground--they deny contraception to individuals who otherwise want to be responsible, then would force them have children, then, in an ideal republican world, would deny them the government resources encouraging them to pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
If I were to get pregnant it would not test my pro-choice stance if I decided to have the child OR even if I terminated the pregnancy. Women are not just walking around terminating pregnancies because they don't want to have to deal with the inconvenience of taking care of a special needs child.
Had to get the thoughts down somewhere.