Friday, October 3, 2008

where is palin on women's health issues?

Deborah Kotz in US News and World Report:
In watching the vice presidential debate last night, I kept waiting for this question that never came: Governor Palin, would a McCain-Palin administration make efforts to limit a women's access to abortion and emergency contraception? A lot of other women, I'm sure, are wondering the same thing. We've already heard Palin's personal views on abortion and the morning after pill; as she told Katie Couric, she's against them because she firmly believes that life begins at conception. I do admire her for living by her beliefs, choosing to carry and raise a child with Down syndrome.

But I'd really like to know more about any plans to implement these personal views. Palin also told Couric, when asked if it should be illegal for a girl who was raped to get an abortion: "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." So, does Palin think abortion should be a legal right or not? I'm still uncertain.

Much has been made, too, of another women's health issue concerning Palin: A law in Wasilla, Alaska, that required rape victims to pay for the "rape kit" used to collect forensic evidence, on the books when Palin was mayor there. In this written response she provided this week to an Alaska newspaper, Palin didn't explain why the law was still in effect under her watch—it was overturned by state legislation before she became governor...

No comments: