Ow, my back. *wince*

[apocalypsos]

-- Shame on the mainstream media, when the women from The View are the ones asking the hard-hitting questions of John McCain. Yes, even Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whom I hate with a passion.

-- I can't contain my rage at the story that Governor Palin wanted rape victims to pay for their own rape kits, which is so appallingly offensive I can't even think of anything to say to that.

On the other hand, am I the only one who gets extremely uncomfortable whenever her decision to carry a Down's baby to term is used as evidence of her hypocrisy regarding a woman's right to choose? Granted, every pregnancy should be a woman's decision to continue or not, but ... a Down's baby? Really?

-- My back is still killing me. I need to go soak in the tub for a while. Ow.

Comments

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

What bothers me both about Palin opponents calling her a hypocrite and Palin supporters calling her a hero on account of her youngest child is how insulting it is to pro-choice women who choose to continue a pregnancy after discovering the fetus shows signs of a disability, not to mention all the people out there who choose to foster or adopt children with disabilities. I strongly believe in a woman's right to continue or terminate a pregnancy for whatever reasons make sense for her life and her family, but it doesn't sit right with me to insinuate that the only reason someone would have a baby with Down's Syndrome is because they didn't see themselves as having any other option.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I've been involved with abortion debates and the sheer amount of people who refuse to acknowledge adoption as a -possibillity- scares me. I've personally, with my own eyes, seen it work.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

the sheer amount of people who refuse to acknowledge adoption as a -possibillity- scares me.

For themselves or for others? Because I could never in a million years consider giving up my child, if I were lucky enough to have one. I know adoption works (there's been adoptions in almost every generation of my family on both sides) and I still could never consider it. It'd take extreme circumstances to make me even think about abortion -- it'd have to be life or death.

I love adoption, I do, but sometimes it just seems like it gets suggested as an option too often to women getting abortions because they're not financially, emotionally or mentally prepared to raise a child. "Well, if you can't raise it, you could give it to someone who could!" Wait, why does somebody else's desire for an infant take priority over my desire to keep my own damn child? Why is there less of a movement to make it easier for women to keep their children and more of a movement to suggest to them to give up their babies to the perfect needy couple? Why isn't the government doing more to help that needy couple understand that there are just as needy children and teens who need homes right now while at the same time providing programs that would make it easier for women like me to carry, give birth to, and raise an unexpected infant, women like me who are so broke we can't afford new clothes and would love to keep a baby but would have to dig up the money from somewhere for something as simple as maternity clothes for the next nine months all so that some nice shiny oh-so-perfect traditionally married two-parent couple can take my fucking baby?

... ahem. Sorry. I spilled venting on you. *offers a napkin*

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

Because people do not want to have to pay for other people's children. If the baby is adopted, those people are paying for the child, and society isn't. That's why people want to push adoption so hard on women in that position.

The hilarious part of that position is that they end up paying for all the kids/teenagers in the system so no one wins.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

*nods* Adoption can work, of course - but I can understand why some people have mixed feelings about it, given that we as a society are in a rapidly changing place when it comes to adoption. The secrecy is unravelling, which is encouraging for those for whom open adoption is a good fit, but prohibiting for others. There's no 'going upstate to visit your aunt' now - it's nine visible months of all the pain and emotional turmoil of pregnancy and labour, with friends and near-strangers alike all asking you afterwards what happened to the baby. And it's knowing that the child could well track you down within the next eighteen years, as the privacy rights of birth parents dwindle.

We hear about the overloaded foster system, and adoptive parents holding out for white, healthy newborns; there's the potential clustersmuck of transracial adoption; legal and social controversy about gay couples and single men and women adopting; rising infertility rates and people insisting that fertile couples have no right to adopt healthy newborns; and news stories about disabled children being horrifically abused by foster or adoptive parents. Personally, I'm open to adopting someday - but while I acknowledge adoption as a possibility, it's one I would quickly discount were I faced with an unwanted pregnancy.

[conuly]

I agree, firmly and unequivocally.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

The rape kit thing is robbing me of my grasp of the English language, I'm so furious.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Evidence of her hypocrisy? What now? She chose not to abort, which is in line with her philosophy of...not liking abortion. The fact that she presents that, and her daughter's continued pregnancy, as a choice rather than the only possible option, ever, is kinda hypocritical, I suppose, because in her ideal world the "choice" could only go one way, but really, in the area of abortion she's acted in line with her philosophy.

And lordy, but I hate the View, but I'll take my proper politician-grilling from anyone at this point. (Obama needs a grilling, too, IMO. Enough of embracing the messianic image- it's insubstantial and kind of creepy.) But is this really a total shock? If you're going to blend news and entertainment, you're going to get entertainment all over your news...and news all over your entertainment, apparently.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

The fact that she presents that, and her daughter's continued pregnancy, as a choice rather than the only possible option, ever, is kinda hypocritical, I suppose, because in her ideal world the "choice" could only go one way
Yeah, this is what makes me spit - the fact that it wouldn't even be a choice, for anyone. But I don't get the logic of her being a hypocrite otherwise o_O

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that's actually what I meant. I guess somewhere between coming off seven straight twelve-hour days of work and my back I phrased it wrong.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Any politician needs a severe and constant hassle; if only to keep them on their toes.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

God, can't agree with that one more. I want an entire press gang of Helen Thomases who won't take bullshit from either candidate.

[liliaeth]

well at least Obama let himself be interviewed by O'Reilly. (or however you spell that)

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

I haven't liked Elisabeth Hasselbeck this much since watching Survivor: Australian Outback.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I think it hypocritical because:

1. While it is a choice, she does not regard it as such and would force others to make HER choice, not theirs.

2. She is parading the baby around as proof she can be mom and veep when she likely won't have much to do with that special needs child's upbringing. Hired help will.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Devil's Advocate: Aren't there severity degrees of Autism?

Since the topic has arisen, my neurotic mind is no longer positive, but I know a mentally disabled woman who seems to have Down's who is happy as a clam and more 'able' then most people I know. Heck, the only problem in real life she seems to have in all my years of knowing her is not understanding 'inside voice' and 'drinking Gatorade'.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

One good thing about living in a small rural town is that it's really, really supportive to people with disabilities. Someone with Down's isn't "a guy with Down's", he's "Scott who works at the butcher's". I always wondered, before moving here, how disabled people coped in village society of previous centuries, and now I have a pretty good idea - they coped very well indeed!

[conuly]

Not all of them.

I hate to be a downer, but well up until recently people seriously did believe in changelings. And they seriously did harm or kill their "changeling" - that is, disabled - children.

Martin Luther, for one, said that changeling children - which in our world would include "Scott who works at the butcher's" - didn't have souls.

[tv-elf.livejournal.com]

I just find the whole bit a tad offensive in that she's using the kid as an election point. "Aren't I a wonderful person to have a baby with Down's?" No, no she isn't. She preaches against abortion. It would make her more hypocritical had she made any other option. Because of who I am, I'm actually a big supporter of keeping disabled children. But I resent parents who use their disabled children to score sympathy votes.