Palin Baby Rumor Ignores the Bigger Issue…

The blogosphere has been churning in the last few days with questions about Sarah Palin’s fifth baby. Daily Kos picked up the Alaskan rumor that Sarah’s newest son, a Down’s baby, is actually her 17-year old daughter’s.

OK, it was an interesting question, brought on by Palin’s somewhat strange behavior after her water broke in Texas, but the question is now laid to rest. The campaign announced that Bristol, the daughter in question, has been pregnant for 5 months. Trig, the baby, was born 4 months ago, so it can’t possibly be Bristol’s son.

But this is all beside the point. Gossip is fun, of course, but the real issue is about abortion rights. Palin is using little Trig to prove her Christian Right credentials.

A sitting governor chose to have a disabled child, instead of choosing an abortion. The socially conservative wing of the Republican party is excited to have a VP candidate who has proved herself to be pro-life by having the baby in spite of the fact that he will need life-long care.

Palin and her husband made a personal choice, and no reasonable person would question their right to do so.

However, she didn’t just make a personal choice. She would make that choice for everyone else in similar circumstances, if she had the chance.

The McCain/Palin presidency would put at least one and possibly two new anti-choice judges on the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade would be history.

Of course, Palin could afford to make the choice she did. Since she went back to work just three days after delivering a premature, special-needs baby, she obviously can afford high-quality child care for the baby (and the rest of her large brood).

However, her political views on abortion, informed by her religious beliefs, would force all pregnant women to bring their babies to term whether or not they had health insurance, whether or not they were married, and even whether or not the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. This is ‘compassionate conservatism’ at it’s worst.

As a long-time employee of one of the largest health insurance companies in the Northwest, I know that a pregnant woman without health insurance is disqualified from buying an individual plan. In fact, a pregnant woman’s husband is also disqualified, because the newborn baby would be eligible for insurance without going through underwriting. Big insurance companies make their profits by minimizing their risks, and this isn’t a risk they’re willing to take. In Oregon, a newly pregnant woman must immediately apply for the State’s high-risk pool, in order to get coverage in time so the policy’s pre-existing condition clause can run out before the baby is born.

If there’s no insurance, a high-risk pregnancy and special-needs child could easily put a young family into bankruptcy - something Palin didn’t have to face. Even if a pregnant woman does have insurance, she may not have a husband who can support her, or a job that will allow her to take the many days off work that could be required by a sick baby. These are not problems that Palin had to face, but it could be a problem for thousands of women if Palin’s pro-life politics become public law.

So, the Palin baby rumor, interesting as it was for a few short days, simply misses the point. The important question is not “whose baby is it”? What we need to be asking ourselves is whether or not we want Palin and a conservative Supreme Court to make our own personal choices for us.

And one more thought on this issue - McCain, the ‘maverick’ of his party, evidently preferred Lieberman as his running mate. Unfortunately, he caved in to the demands of the far-right wing of his party and chose a pro-life candidate instead. He claims that Palin’s record mimicks his own maverick credentials, but the choice itself, made under pressure, shows that McCain will do almost anything to win - even if it goes against his own best judgement. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a president who is actually in charge, for a change?