Emily
MikeCheck out the new cover of In Touch magazine:
That’s right– not only is Sarah Palin a new Fox News contributor, she’s also landed the front page of the same magazine that so masterfully covered such significant issues as “Jen’s Warning to Angelina,” “Simon and Paula Secretly In Love”, and “Stars Without Makeup!”
Knocks on tabloids aside, there are other issues I take with Palin’s cover. Most significantly, I take issue with the bold, yellow capital letters proclaiming that the Palins are glad they “chose life.”
The Palins are unambiguously pro-life– which, in the context of abortion rights, means that they’re anti-choice. Sarah Palin is opposed to Roe v. Wade, and she’s opposed to a woman’s right to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy– a fact that’s not even debatable. So why is someone who’s against choice in this context patting herself on the back for choosing?
I’ve seen this issue continue to pop up lately. Those who are against abortion rights are co-opting the word “choice.” You can’t reward yourself for making a choice, unless you’re prepared to say that the right to make that choice is a necessary component, too.
Being “pro-life” isn’t about making the personal, individual decision to not have an abortion– it’s about forcing that decision on millions of other women: strangers, whose life choices and circumstances you will never grasp or be adequately judge. There are countless women who may feel uncomfortable with having an abortion themselves– but who wouldn’t impose that decision on any other woman. They trust women, and they’d like to leave individual choices about their bodies up to those individual women. And those people are called pro-choice.
In fact, it’s fairly easy for Sarah and Bristol Palin to be able to carry their pregnancies to term. They’re educated, privileged Americans with an abundance of resources available to make that ‘choice’ easier. The cover of this magazine might look completely different, if focused on a different section of the US population.
At the end of the day, I’m glad Sarah and Bristol Palin “chose life,” too. If only because I’m glad that they, like other women, even had a choice.
Filed under: Abortion, Politics, Pop Culture, Reproductive Rights, Sex Tagged: | Abortion, palin, pro-choice, pro-life, Reproductive Rights, Sex
[...] media circuit has helped glorify this affluent, famous white woman for “choosing life.” I even wrote a few months ago that Palin’s life circumstances made her choice much easier than for many women, and she had [...]