Daniel F. Kane, Sr

THE CHOICES OF THE PALIN WOMEN

For those committed to the so-called “right” to abortion, the “choice” rhetoric is the trump card they show whenever they feel as though abortion “rights” might somehow be threatened. Now, unexpectedly, the poster family for “choice,” properly exercised, is the Palin family of Alaska.

Family life is complex, and externally seems to be somewhat untidy at times. While surely Governor Palin held all the abortion get-out-of-jail-free cards, she chose the daring path, the honorable and selfless route of choosing to keep the son Trig—prenatally diagnosed with Down Syndrome-- within her alive, despite his chromosomal damage.

With ease and discretion Palin could have aborted Trig. Over 90% of parents faced with such a situation make this choice, so her action would have been with the plurality of western civilization in the same situation. The choice to abort a handicapped child, and its legality, is the ultimate act of discrimination against the handicapped; the culling of the ill, handicapped and presumably unfit by healthy, nimble and strong parents.

Bristol, the Palins’ oldest daughter, also recently became pregnant with her first child. Unmarried and a high school student, she too could receive a discreet abortion, supposedly sparing her future for endeavors “more important” than her motherhood. But she too chooses to remain the mother she became at the moment of conception. Bristol, who might have been stoned to death in another century, is now being pelted by laptop after laptop in the 21st. Someday her child will read with horror the admonitions addressed to her to end his apparently untimely life and that of his Uncle Trig.

Both mother and daughter made the safe, legal and rare—to use another favorite but meaningless phrase adopted by abortion advocates—choice, and our friends on both sides of the debate should be overjoyed. Both Sarah and Bristol stand as witnesses to the high and difficult road of following a well-formed conscience. They are ambassadors of all that is right in America: faithful action, sacrifice and dignity in the face of untimely and difficult human situations.

The Palin women struck a collective cord connecting with a huge segment of the population. This was not anticipated and is still being comprehended. So too, they struck a discordant cord with the pundits for “choice,” who offer insipid lip service and hollow praise to Sarah and her daughter’s “choices.”

Trig was injured from the moment of conception. He has an extra set of chromosomes on the 21st pair. This injury is apparent in every cell in his body and is completely incurable. Trig is a perfectly imperfect person, as we all are. Yet, while scientifically the prevalence of Down’s syndrome should be increasing as more and more women elect to start families later in life, the actual incidence has dropped close to 90% in the west.

An appropriate use of prenatal diagnosis allowed the Palin family to prepare for Trig. Used inappropriately, it incentivizes others to eliminate their perfectly imperfect children. Soon this testing will encompass little girls with the BRCA gene for breast cancer and other genetically identifiable disease factors. Abortion as a means of gender selection is common in the third world and is completely legal here.

It is apparent that Trig is a much loved son and always will be. So too, is the lucky child of Bristol. Timing is not everything and it certainly is not destiny. If Ann Dunham made a different choice in the winter of 1960 the Democratic nominee, who was conceived in a similar circumstance, would not be here today, nor would his daughters, Malia Ann and Sasha. In a certain sense, their Grandmother Ann gave them life by choosing life for her seemingly untimely son.

The heroic example of the Palin women’s total gift of selves shows that people of faith and reason need not be browbeaten into accepting the “choice” of eugenic abortion and abortion of convenience. Their silent heroism unintendedly thrust into the public square mirrors the quiet heroism of thousands of mothers who made the same heroic choice. Those mothers who devote themselves without reserve or fanfare, sacrificing nearly everything they have and wagering nearly everything they could do, give life to another. Theirs is the heroic choice for life which stands in stark contradiction to the pathetic option given by the purveyors of “choice”.