Shane Ryan, creator of classics like Amateur Porn Star Killer and Sex, Kids, Party, says that the film will handle her story with care: "We're trying to figure out a way to do that so it's not exploitative." • Prosecutors have decided that a 59-year-old man from the UK probably did murder his wife in her sleep, as his defense has claimed. Brian Thomas dreamt that his wife was an intruder, and strangled her to death. Prosecutors, persuaded by expert testimony about automatism and sleep disorders, are now arguing for a ruling of not guilty by reason of mental insanity - the alternative being a "simple verdict of not guilty." • Back in June, New York State decided to allow researchers to pay women for their eggs for stem cell research. But many fear that this policy will take advantage of underprivileged women, since donating eggs is not without risks. • The March of Dimes' Premature Birth Card has graded the U.S. a "D" when it comes to preterm birth rate. Not a single state was awarded an A, and only Vermont was given a B. • Government researchers report black women are twice as likely as white or Hispanic women to suffer a stillbirth, partly due to higher pregnancy rates and because African-American women are more at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, and pregnancy complications like uterine bleeding and premature rupture of the sac surrounding the fetus. The racial gap is even wider between more-educated women. Higher education is linked to a 30 percent reduction in stillbirths among white women, but no reduction in risk among African-Americans. • An interesting new study from the University of Pennsylvania found that children who are insensitive to fear are more likely to grow up to be criminals. Researchers examined toddlers, measuring their sweat output to determine fear. Years later they pulled the records of participants, and found that toddlers who did not sweat in response to a loud noise were more likely to have a criminal record. •  A government watchdog group has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Michele Bachmann violated house rules by organizing the November 5th Tea Party rally. • Wanda Eileen Barzee, the woman accused of helping her then-husband kidnap Elizabeth Smart, has plead guilty to charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. The terms of her plea agreement have not yet been made public. • According to a children's charity, Britain lacks the resources to protect thousands of young girls vulnerable to being forced into sexual slavery. Only 20% of local authorities have the specialist sources to intervene, said the chief executive of Bernardo. • A 21-year-old Army mom may face criminal charges after she skipped a deployment flight to Afghanistan in order to stay home and care for her infant son. Alexis Hutchinson's attorney says her superiors ordered her to place the child in foster care and resume service. •  Several organizations are trying to get more British girls to ride bikes, but the campaigns focus too much on looking good while cycling, according to an editorial in The Guardian. One site called Bike Belles actually advises girls to, "Use waterproof mascara when it's raining on your bike, and take a powder compact for a quick refresher on arrival." • Burkittsville, Maryland, the town where The Blair Witch Project was filmed, had to design new welcome signs because people keep stealing the ones that were shown in the movie. • Hooters Las Vegas lost millions of dollars this year and now the company has received a notice of default from its lenders. The company is trying to restructure, but maybe frat boys just don't have as much money to throw around these days? • A New Jersey high school student is suing her school because administrators wouldn't let her participate in the Pro Life Day of Silent Solidarity, an annual worldwide protest. She wanted to remain silent on October 20, except when called on in class, wear an armband with the word "life" on it, and hand out anti-abortion pamphlets. "The school district basically held that there is no religion allowed in school, which violates the students' First Amendment rights," said her lawyer. • On Saturday, a French woman was allowed to marry the father of her two children nearly a year after his death in a car accident. She stood next to his picture while she recited her vows. "I'm not really in the mood to celebrate," she said afterwards. "We're going to drink a cup of coffee and I will thank those who have supported me." •

#1 Sexism
When asked about her much-publicized campaign wardrobe, Sarah said that the ensuing controversy was due to a double standard, because people don't give the same sort of grief to male candidates. She also said that women have to work just a little bit harder and face a few more challenges than their male counterparts. But later, when discussing how hard it might be to be Vice President (or President) and take care of five children, Sarah said that "things have changed…there's so much equality."


#2 Choice
Sarah, who is anti-choice, said that she believes that when women get abortions, they're taking the easy way out. But later, when discussing her career and ambition, she said it's all about "making the choices that are appropriate for you at the time."


#3 The Katie Couric Interview
When talking about the infamous Katie Couric interview, Sarah said that she was only scheduled to do one interview segment, and if it went well, she would be scheduled for more. Oprah then asked her why she did a second interview if she didn't believe the first went well, and Sarah said, "Well, it was scheduled."


#4 John McCain's Progressiveness
Sarah described her running mate as progressive and all about "equality and empowering women and the working class individual." But she later said the McCain campaign lost the election because their ticket "represented what was perceived as the status quo."


#5 Speaking Her Mind
Sarah told Oprah that she believes the campaign's efforts to force her to "stick to the script" and not "speak from the heart" were a detriment to their ticket. Later, she rejected the notion that not speaking her mind is what lost the election.


#6 Empowering Women
Supposedly, this is accomplished by not terminating pregnancies.


#7 Rumors
In an outtake of the interview, posted on Oprah's website, Sarah says that the "rumor" that she banned books from school libraries could've been so easily disproved, had the campaign allowed her, because Harry Potter hadn't even been written when she was mayor. Sarah, however, was mayor of Wasilla from 1996-2002. The first Harry Potter book was published in the U.S. in 1998, the second and third in 1999, and the fourth in 2000. Also: this. And this.


#8 Journalism
This one isn't so much a contradiction, as it is simply incorrect, or weird. Sarah has a journalism degree and has "journaled her whole life."

A World Exclusive: Oprah and Sarah Palin Meet for the First Time [Oprah.com]

Weigel notes that one of the few events Palin attended outside of Alaska — which included a celebration of Lincoln Secretary of State Seward, a Republican fundraiser and an event for disabled children — and the event at which Palin made her post-candidacy debut, was at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life Committee in Evansville, Indiana. (And, in case you're inclined to think Evansville is a big town, I've actually been there and can assure you it is not.) Of the public statements she's made on national policy issues (as opposed to defending her children), Weigel points out that she weighed in on, of all things, Obama's Notre Dame commencement speech, aka the pet project of the anti-abortion movement this spring.

Could this mean that the public role she's poised to take isn't as a Fox News commentator, 2012 Presidential candidate or monied speechmaker, but as the biggest boon to an anti-abortion movement better known for the likes of Randall Terry, Lesley Unruh and Jill Stanek? Weigel and plenty of anti-abortion activists think so.

Anti-abortion activists, who embraced Palin after the birth of Trig and after the unmarried pregnancy of Palin's daughter Bristol, are ecstatic about the possibility that Palin, freed from the duties and turmoils of office, could become a historic leader and spokeswoman for their cause.

"Sarah Palin is the ultimate speaker on pro-life issues," said Jane Abraham, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party who co-founded Team Sarah, a project of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List that supports anti-abortion female candidates. "We surpassed 70,000 members over the weekend, after her speech. People respond to her. She's absolutely the most effective advocate the pro-life movement could have."

She's got a compelling personal-choice story and is a mint for conservative causes.

And the anti-abortion movement is certainly not above making women its face, even when the leadership is mostly male.

According to Gary Bauer, the former president of the Family Research Council who now leads the conservative American Values, Palin's gender and personal experiences would make her a "fantastic" leader in the anti-abortion movement. "A woman making the argument that this is not something that should be a right, but rather that it's a disaster for women, is a much more powerful voice than somebody like myself, for example." Bauer recalled that when he led the FRC, he "set out to find as many pro-life young women as I could. When there were opportunities to give them media appearances, I did."

What a surprise that the anti-abortion movement would seek to camouflage its male leadership behind a group of women! I think the technical phrase for that is "lipstick on a pig." Maybe while considering these offers, she'll finally realize what that means.

Palin Still Finds Fans in Anti-Abortion Movement [Washington Independent]

Earlier: Operation Rescue Goes Predictably Negative, Crazy On Sotomayor
The Many Contradictions Of Leslee Unruh, Anti-Abortion And "Purity" Advocate
Accessories To A __________
Anti-Choice Activist Fighting To Make Sure Teenagers Stay Pregnant
Kristi Burton Is Not Exactly Beloved By The Anti-Abortion Movement

Said Rebeccah Beushausen, the suburban Chicago woman whose faux-pregnancy with a terminally ill baby spawned legions of (now-disillusioned) supporters:

I am a 26 year old woman who loves to draw and paint. I've worked for years in the social service (not a licensed social worker; never said I was) field. I am a Christian and while I wrote many of my posts under dishonest contexts, the God I shared with all of you and wrote about is still God; the Creator or life, Father and Savior. I hope to regain my relationship back with Him, fully, myself....In my life I've had good days and I have also dealt with a lot of pain, including the sorrow over the loss of life, among a lot of other things. I don't say that to garner your sympathy or to lessen your anger. I say it because it is true. Was the loss present day? - No. But true, none the less. In my "calendar past," perhaps, but still very much so in my present day to day...I lied and I am not trying to hide that, nor am I trying to minimize it. Worse still, I lied to a community of people whose only intention was to support me through this time and that is wrong, and for that I am sorrier than you could know.

While Beushausen's post, which went up on Sunday, acknowledges that the apology doesn't "excuse" the deception, she explains rather vaguely that "I have suffered this type of loss, more than once, to varying degrees" and that, while the actual sick baby April Rose may not have existed, the emotions did! And she denies vehemently that she made a financial profit:

I received a limited number of gifts through my P.O. box. A baby hat, a pair of little shoes, a hair bow, a crocheted blanket, to name a few. I never once received a check or cash in the mail. Ever. (I have not been to my P.O. box in over a week and will not be going back.

And in an act of either good faith or extreme insensitivity, she gives a link to a site "which highlights nearly 100 real families of real T13 babies presently living with this disease or struggling with such a diagnosis. These women and families and little ones need a lot of support."

That she's a graceful, convincing writer is not in question - indeed, it's kind of the issue. So while the "sociopath" or "sad" question is still unanswered, and it's hard not to think there's a bit of both in there. For those supporters who were willingly moved by Beushausen's writing for months - the very people to whom the post is addressed - this heartstring-tugging apology may not go very far. Says one Christian blogger who promoted "April's Mom," "To be honest, I think she is far from recognizing the true gravity of the situation."

Whatever the depth - or the cause - of Beushausen's pain, according to CBS she's disconnected her phone number and moved in with her mother. Whether her safety is actually in question, some people may call for their pounf of flesh. But, say lawyers, this will be tricky: the lack of substantial monetary profit (she didn't make money off her site's ad, given that it didn't get the required 45 days' exposure), the difficulty of determining jurisdiction, and the still-vague nature of internet law would make prosecution pretty much a non-starter. It seems pretty clear that the only real "results" of the episode are going to be a lot of anger and resentment - and that's the last thing anyone needs. (Caveat: we hope these are the only results. But the horrible spectre of a book deal always looms.)

i am sorry [Little One April]

Blogger Apologizes For Sick Baby Hoax [CBS]

Earlier: Anti-Abortion Blogger's Miracle Baby Was, In Fact, A Doll

"April's Mom," a single mother whose blog chronicled her pregnancy with a child, terminally ill with Trisomy 13 and HPE, whom she was carrying to term, attracted the attention and support of abortion opponents across the country. Every day, thousands of people read about her commitment to keeping the baby, her struggles, her pain - all set to a Christian rock soundtrack and interspersed with Bible verses and anti-abortion links. They sent her stories and prayers, letters and gifts. As the site took off, she got links from other pro-life sites and a number of advertisers. Prominent pro-lifers added a "Pray for April Rose" button to their blogs. By the time "April's Mom" gave birth to the baby - who lived only a few hours - almost a million people were deeply invested in the story.

And so, when they realized it was an elaborate hoax, people were mad (albeit, in many cases, glad a baby hadn't died.) Suspicions were raised when the baby's description didn't match that of a child ill with Trisomy 13 and HPE, a red flag to those of her supporters who had dealt with the illness. Then April Rose looked suspiciously healthy. Then April Rose looked suspiciously like a doll*. These suspicions were confirmed when the author rushed to shut down the site, as well as her popular MYSpace and Twitter. And soon her identity was revealed: she was 26-year-old social worker Beccah Beushausen. Now, instead of checks and gifts, she's getting hate mail.

Beushausen says she feels bad, but that her acts were rooted in a real opposition to abortion - and that she drew on her experience of actually losing a son in 2005. Says the Chicago Tribune,

She had expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked...."I've always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear," Beushausen said..."Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand, I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

It's tempting of course to use this as a chance to take an easy bash at anti-choice, and revel in anything that makes them look foolish, but frankly, I'm just sad for this woman. Although the differences are obvious, in some ways, she's reminiscent of Ashley Todd (she of the inept self-mutilation) who saw the particularly emotional nature of people's political sympathies as an opportunity for attention. While these are deeply disturbed young women, it's also true that in both cases there were communities ready to embrace them ideologically, and that's no coincidence in a world where we see people galvanized by hate-speech and protests of the most lurid and distasteful kind. I don't take any pleasure in anyone extending prayers and thoughts to this woman and finding they were duped, especially those who actually went through the pain of losing a child. But the readiness to politicize, to use her pain and tragedy as a cause - and the anger at being duped, at finding that a baby did not, in fact die - is sobering. This woman saw there was rage and emotion to be harnessed, and she did. The found the attention and the approval - she was doing God's work, after all! - addictive. And that's the scary part.

*The doll in question was allegedly a Reborn. Our sources (aka, Wikipedia) say that "a reborn doll is a vinyl baby doll that has been enhanced to resemble a human baby. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning."

Blogger's Baby Was A Hoax [Chicago Tribune]

Grotesque Con-Women for Life (The April's Mom Scam) [BeliefNet]
Little April Rose Is A Fake!!!

Earlier: Ashley Todd: An Image Of Intolerance, Illness Or Both?

Workers at Tiller's clinic had seen Roeder supergluing its locks a total of four times, beginning in 2000, and reported these incidents to the FBI. The FACE act, signed into law by President Clinton, makes it a federal crime to vandalize an abortion clinic. Roeder could have been prosecuted under this law, but the FBI told a clinic worker that it was unwilling to start proceedings against Roeder because this would require a grand jury and a warrant.

Rowley agrees, perhaps surprisingly, that the supergluing wasn't enough for the FBI to pay attention to Roeder. But, she says, they should have taken action once they realized that Roeder had already been arrested in 1996 with bomb-making materials in his car and the intent to blow up an abortion clinic. With this information, they could have visited Roeder's home and warned him not to come back to Tiller's clinic. Mild as this move seems, it apparently worked in 2000, keeping Roeder away from the clinic for years. It might have saved Tiller's life.

TPMmuckraker adds,

There's also a larger story here, which involves what appears to be a sharp drop off, during the Bush years, in efforts to enforce the FACE Act and otherwise to ensure the safety of abortion providers. Could the general turn by law enforcement in recent years toward a focus on Islamic and environmental terrorism, and away from right-wing terrorism, have played a role in what looks like the FBI's casual response? And is it time to rethink that shift? It's certainly worth asking.

Meanwhile, Scott Roeder awaits his trial. The man whom eyewitnesses saw shoot Tiller, and who was seen vandalizing Tiller's clinic on four occasions, and who was caught in 1996 with explosives in his car, says, ""I haven't been convicted of anything, and I am being treated as a criminal." He also says "I appreciate your prayers."

One thing he doesn't have to pray for is being spared the death penalty. That's already off the table, because his crime doesn't include any of the seven special circumstances required for the death penalty under Kansas law. While it's hard to see why killing a man so many women in need depended on is less heinous than, say, a contract killing (one of the circumstances), we should think hard before we wish death on Roeder. One of the most upsetting inconsistencies in American politics is that those who trumpet the sanctity of life also often support the death penalty. Now is an important time to show that being pro-choice doesn't mean being pro-death, and that abortion rights are about the right of a woman to control her own body, not about a callous attitude toward human life. Just because you believe that a woman should be able to choose to terminate her fetus doesn't necessarily mean you also have to believe that the government should be able to kill a born, living human being.

FBI 9/11 Whistleblower: Bureau Dropped The Ball On Tiller Case [TPMmuckraker]
Abortion Doctor Slay Suspect Chides Media [CBS]
Why Kansas D.A. Can't Seek The Death Penalty In Tiller case [AP, via Miami Herald]
Before Tiller Murder, FBI Got Detailed Info On Roeder's Illegal Activity [TPMmuckraker]
Freedom Of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act [National Abortion Federation]

Earlier: Dr. George Tiller's Assassin, Scott Roeder, Speaks
Man Charged In Murder Had Ties To Anti-Abortion, Anti-Government Organizations

Most of the women who have shared their experiences online — even anonymously — are married, and sought late-term abortions because of fetal abnormalities. Though their decisions were heart-wrenching — these were planned, wanted pregnancies — their stories may be more socially acceptable because they don't fit the pro-life profile of thoughtless sluts seeking "abortion on demand." But Tiller treated unmarried women and girls too, with no less compassion. One woman, who terminated her pregnancy because of a rare fetal blood abnormality, remembers Tiller's commitment to all his patients:

My husband and I found Dr. George Tiller to be a caring, sensitive, and compassionate man who truly believed he was helping those of us who were desperate and had nowhere else to go. While we were at his clinic, he was very concerned about an 11-year-old child raped by her stepfather. And, when we were tormented by Operation Rescue protesters outside his clinic, he put on a bullet proof vest and personally drove us out of there while we hid in his van.

And a husband recalls:

I remember being puzzled about a T-shirt he was wearing, which said "Happy Birthday Jennifer from team Tiller!" or something similar. Turns out it comemmorated the birthday of a fifteen year old girl who was raped, became pregnant, and came to Tiller for an abortion. As luck would have it, she was in the clinic the same week as her birthday. So the clinic threw her a party.

A Heartbreaking Choice, a website for parents who terminate planned pregnancies due to fetal abnormalities, has a section called "Kansas Stories," dedicated to Tiller's Women's Health Services Clinic, one of only three in the nation that will perform abortions after 21 weeks. The stories don't mention Tiller by name, but they paint the clinic as a safe haven for women with few options, beset on all sides by critics. One woman writes,

I was 27 weeks by this point. I was terrified. The moment I met the doctor, all of that ended. He was a wonderful and loving man. I came in on Monday and gave birth to our baby girl on Friday. We were able to hold her after, and say our goodbyes. That doctor will always be in my heart.

Another says:

The reality is that abortion in the late second and third trimesters is extremely rare. The reality is that finding a doctor to do this procedure in the late second or third trimester is almost impossible. For me, the reality was that at the most painful time of my life I had to travel out of state, stay in a hotel room and face hostile protesters in order to carry out this most personal of choices. [...]

My only advice is don't let "them" define this for you. It is still your choice, your child and your life. I started to react as if the protesters were talking to me personally and indeed felt like everything they said was directed at me. In truth, they never see the real people behind the rhetoric.

A third adds:

The following morning the protestors were there again but this time with a twist. They had a huge group of kids with them. These middle- to high school-age kids were out there on the street corner hollering at us. These children didn't have the slightest understanding of what we were going through but they were taught they had the right to judge us.

A Kansas pro-lifer, writing to Andrew Sullivan, lays part of the blame for Tiller's death at the feet of such protesters:

This had been going on for years now. When these people said that Tiller's practices must be "brought to an end" or whatever, I truly believe that the vast, vast, vast majority of them (including the OR president, whom I've talked to about this before) do not have homicide on their minds. However, it doesn't matter. Operation Rescue or Bill O'Reilly do not qualify every statement about Tiller with a parenthetical stating "oh, by the way, killing him is not the way to stop him" for obvious reasons. But even if they did, they can't stop someone from thinking that more drastic measures are "necessary."

Pro-life advocates have the right to protest in front of abortion clinics, just as advocates for choice have the right to criticize them for making a difficult time all the more painful for women. But rhetoric that targets abortion providers themselves, rather than abortion as an issue, always runs the risk of inciting extremism and violence. After Tiller's death, Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said,

Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning.

His denunciation is commendable, but why the focus on "bringing Tiller to justice?" Why can't the debate over abortion concentrate on laws and courts, rather than on individuals who perform a service that is legal and considered by many to be morally acceptable? William Saletan at Slate says, "If unborn children are morally equal to born children, then Tiller's assassin has just succeeded where the legal system failed: He has stopped a mass murderer from killing again." He says that the fact that pro-life groups have denounced Tiller's murderer shows they don't truly equate unborn children with born children, or abortion with murder. But there's another argument here, one that says if you truly disagree with abortion, you should seek to remove the laws that allow it, not the people who operate according to those laws. If the death of George Tiller shows us anything, it's that if there must be a battle over abortion, that battle should be fought at the polls and in the courtrooms, not in doctor's offices — and the weapons should be words, not bullets.

Kansas Stories [A Heartbreaking Choice]
Patients Remember Dr. Tiller [Feministe]
It's So Personal: A Tiller Patient [Daily Dish]
Another Memory Of Visiting Dr. Tiller [Double X]
A Pro-Lifer From Kansas [The Daily Dish]
Kan. Abortion Doc Killed In Church; Suspect Held [AP, via Yahoo News]
Tiller's Killer [Slate]

The Journal reports that Planned Parenthood gets $335 million a year from the government, which is a third of its budget, and it also had a $115 million budget surplus last year. Indiana abortion foe Scott Tibbs tells the Journal,"The money needs to go to local organizations that actually need it and don't have the backing of a multimillion-dollar organization."

As has been noted before, less than 3-5% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion related, and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards says that in times of economic turmoil, people need Planned Parenthood's health care services the most. It's "a lifeline for millions of people," Richards tells the Journal, especially for those who have lost their health insurance along with their jobs.

It's unclear whether the lobbying efforts of groups like the Family Research Council will be successful in getting local governments to cut back on their Planned Parenthood funding; however, in the past few weeks, Atlanta and Sarasota area Planned Parenthoods have seen their local government funding scaled back. Sarasota's funding was cut from their sex-ed program, and former Sarasota county commissioner Paul Mercier says to the Journal, "It had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood's mission…It had everything to do with them not needing the funding."

Abortion Foes Open A New Front [WSJ]

Earlier: Planned Parenthood Indiana Offends The Baby Jesus, Michelle Malkin

So what's the big deal, you may think, this pharmacy is in the D.C. area, competing against thousands of pharmacies that do dispense birth control. But, as former Planned Parenthood lawyer Roberta Riley points out, "in parts of Montana, women must drive 80 miles to find a pharmacy willing to sell contraception," because so many pharmacists are practicing their "consciences."

What's more, as Tarina Keene, executive director of the Virginia chapter of NARAL notes, "If this emboldens other pharmacies in other parts of the state, it could really affect low-income and rural women in terms of access." But isn't denying women their prescriptions illegal? Well, it depends on where you live.

According to the AP, a Wisconsin state appeals court upheld sanctions against a pharmacist who wouldn't give a woman her birth control and wouldn't transfer the woman's prescriptions elsewhere (yay Wisconsin!). But according to Riley, who writes forWomen's E-news, a "ruling, issued in late 2007 by a lower court and now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, allows people who run pharmacies to refuse to dispense birth control based on their belief it kills the unborn." The Ninth Circuit Court covers California and the Pacific Northwest, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Arizona, but it's headquartered in San Francisco, so fingers crossed that the pinko liberals will not allow pharmacists to continue refusing women their prescriptions.

What's most troubling about the Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is that according to NARAL Virginia, the Birth Control Protection Act has failed to pass in the state for six years running, so refusing women their valid prescriptions is currently legal. To download the NARAL petition click here, or if you happen to live near Chantilly, drive by and give the Divine Mercy Care folks your divine middle finger.

Va. Pharmacy Follows Faith, No Birth Control Sales [AP via Yahoo News]
McCain Is Party to Secret War on Contraception [Women's E-News]

There are three main reasons Weigel lists that Catholics use to justify their support of pro-choice candidates. Obama Catholics argue that the abortion battle has already been waged and lost by anti-abortion advocates, that the "intrinsic evil" of the Bush presidency and the Republican platform outweigh the "intrinsic evil" of abortion, and finally that Obama supports social policy that would ultimately lower the abortion rate.

I agree with Weigel that the abortion battle is still going strong (hello South Dakota!) and so that first reason for being pro-life and probama is questionable, but the second two reasons seem logically sound. However, I am not Catholic and my knowledge of the ins and outs of the religion are limited.

One pro-life woman quoted in Slate, who is voting for neither Obama nor McCain, is still sick of hearing about social issues during this election cycle. "I don't want to hear about questions for which there are no answers," she said. And her point really resonated with me. Abortion is one of those things where there is no compromise: either you believe it's murder or you don't. However, I wonder if the shoe were on the other foot, if there was a candidate with whom I agreed on every issue except abortion, if I would be able to vote for him or her. I don't know that I'd be able to put social issues aside as these women have.

Pro-Life And Pro-Obama [Slate]
Pro-Life Catholics For Obama [Newsweek]

Because, for one, most schools in Alaska do teach comprehensive sex-ed, and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development offers schools a choice of curricula that include programs focusing on abstinence without endorsing a specific program. In fact, there have even been debates in Alaska since the start of Palin's tenure whether exempting children from comprehensive sex ed is constitutional. Palin's statements on abstinence-only education date to one questionnaire from a right-wing group during her campaign in 2006 when asked the following question:

Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

In answer to that leading question which conflates comprehensive sexual education with condom and Pill distribution, her campaign answered:

Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

In the last year and a half, searches of her office's website and the Guttmacher Institute revealed no abstinence-only initiatives by her administration. Simply put, Sarah Palin is by no means the world's biggest promoter of abstinence-only education, as some people are claiming.

Is it possible that she supports it (or supported it)? Sure, it's certainly a Republican initiative. But there's no evidence that I can find that she yanked Bristol out of sex ed classes or denied her contraceptive education. To make a 17-year-old girl who didn't likely choose either to be pregnant or to be some political football the new poster child for attacking her mother's policy positions doesn't leave any better a taste in my mouth this afternoon than I had this morning.

On a more personal note, though, let those of us who did remain abstinent in high school (and thereafter) and always practiced safe sex throw stones. I lost my virginity at 16 not because I wasn't exposed to comprehensive sex ed or because my parents were too religious or even too permissive. I chose to have sex with my high school boyfriend because I loved him deeply and because I wanted to. The two of us were honors students, tops of our classes, responsible and reliable and I'll be damned if I can sit here and swear that we were the safest sex practitioners on God's green earth. That we didn't end up pregnant had likely a lot more to do with luck than it did a rigorous adherence to what Ms. H. taught us in health class. And, had we gotten pregnant, I would've strongly preferred to get an abortion — but I don't think he would've been quite as enthusiastic about that alternative.

I can only imagine the courage it took for Bristol to go to her parents, pregnant at 17, and lay out one of the most personal aspects of human life — her sexual activities — and the consequences of those activities and that she was choosing to keep the child despite the high probability of political embarrassment that would be laid at her mother's doorstep. And all of that was before her mother was about to be made VP. She didn't by any means choose the easy path here, and everyone probably fully expected that this big reveal would happen at some point rather soon. That it has doesn't make my bile rise any less with every post I read about how, ha-ha, look what happens when you promote abstinence. Once again, even for this great lover of Schandenfreude, my lips are curling in a little disgust with the glee shown by some of my political compatriots at this news.

Yes, we need to have a rational conversation in this country about striking the balance between providing students with age-appropriate sex education and a rational discussion about moral values and their role in making sexual choices. I am a full and complete supporter of comprehensive sex ed — which includes information like "there is no such thing as blue balls" and "no means no" and "saying no to sex can be a sign of respect for both of you." But clapping our hands in joyous rubbernecking over Bristol Palin's being in the family way is not going to be the start of any discussion. It makes us look as judge-y as we accuse Them of being, it makes us look like abortion-promoters instead of choice-respecters (it does mean both choices, after all) and it makes us look like we think a 17-year-old target is easier to hit than a 44-year-old target. Sex education will be a great topic for discussion and reform in an Obama Administration, and it wouldn't — and shouldn't — involve the now rather-public embarrassment or shaming of a 17-year-old girl.

Palin's Daughter Pregnant [Politico]
To Rebut Rumors, Palin Says Daughter, 17, Pregnant [Reuters]
Health Education Curriculum in Alaska [Alaska Legislative Information]
HIV/STD and Sexuality Education Curricula [Alaska Department of Education & Early Development ]
2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire [Eagle Forum Alaska]
Alaska Schools Discuss Whether Exempting Kids from Sex Ed is 'Unconstitutional' [Christian Post]

She goes on with drivel about hearing her baby's heartbeat for the first time, and takes the abortion blogger to task for her "disregard and disgust for pregnancy," and adds that the blogger "certainly does the abortion movement no favors." I don't understand the logic of that. Shouldn't a woman who has a "disregard and disgust" for pregnancy, well…not have a baby?? Does this letter-writer expect to shame the blogger into wanting to be a mother? Then the writer goes on to project her life and fantasies onto the blogger:

If I weren’t so consumed with my desire to bitch slap her, I’d feel nothing but pity. I’d like to fast forward 10 years from now to a point where she might be expecting a baby that she desperately wants and is in love with the moment she holds that pregnancy test in her hands. Will she immediately be avoiding Starbucks and suddenly be drawn to organic versions of her favorite foods like I am?

First of all, I'm entertained by the letter writer's complete bourgie myopia! Because to her, being a pregnant woman is about OMGZ avoiding Starbucks and eating organic! Not, you know, frantically fearing that you're pregnant and don't even have the health insurance that a Starbucks employee is guaranteed. I bet this self-centered jerk doesn't give a hoot about the women who, according to ABC News, are taking off-label drugs or attempting to herbally induce abortions because they either can't afford to pay for a doctor-instituted abortion or are immigrants who don't even know that a medical abortion is a possibility.

The woman ends her letter writing, "This little girl is doing herself no favors in documenting her thoughts at this time in her life. They will be there in all their shameful glory forever, and she will most certainly live to regret it." I think the only thing the abortion blogger would regret is having a baby she didn't want and couldn't provide for. I'd like to fast forward to fifteen or twenty years from now, when this letter writer's unborn baby is a teenage girl, who is pregnant and feels she can't talk to her mother about her options. Maybe this teenager will do some creative Googling and find some solace because she's not the only one with ouchy titties.

My Abortion, Ctd. [The Atlantic]
Some Worry Underground Abortions Are Still a Reality [ABC News]

Earlier: Blogging An Abortion: "Precious, Silver-Tongued, Knocked Up 16 Year Olds Where Are You??"

Unruh's journey from hippie to anti-abortion activist began, she says, with her late-seventies abortion of her fourth pregnancy — an abortion that she claims her doctor encouraged for less-than-accurate medical reasons. Unruh's public story departed from the truth of the situation some time long before Robb got to her — in the course of the research, she admits that Allen Unruh was not her first husband. By her accounting, she met him in 1976 — though a she told the Washington Post they married in 1972. Actually, she married her first husband, Larry Kutzler, in 1973 (while she was, apparently, already pregnant), divorced him in 1977 and it was his child that she aborted "sometime in 1978 or 1979." She married Unruh in late 1978 and had two children with him after that.

In 1984, Unruh opened a crisis pregnancy center, followed by a home for unwed mothers in 1986. In 1987, she pled "no contest" to charges that she paid young women not to have abortions and arranged adoptions without a license. But she'd apparently already decided that the best way to stop abortions was to prevent unwanted pregnancies — but not through birth control. She got into the chastity movement, which started eating from the federal trough after Bill Clinton signed into law his 1996 welfare reform bill — the first time abstinence-only education was federally funded. Like many other government programs, it's only gotten bigger.

Unruh's obsessions include pedophiles, rape, molestation, pornography, disease, peer pressure to have sex and the idea that having multiple sexual partners automatically makes sex less intimate. She swears her daughter never even kissed her own husband until her wedding day. She thinks that taking birth control pills that limit menstruation is an effort to turn women into men. She also loves to hand out dolls of baby fetuses.

It would be — and often is, if you Google Leslee Unruh — easy to mock her politics, her religious beliefs, her fanaticism for her causes and her looks**. But if you're an advocate for reproductive freedom, then mocking her doesn't help your goals any more than demonizing us helps her achieve hers. Leslee maintains a memorial garden for women (and men) to commemorate their abortions and doesn't go off on rants about how women who've had abortions (or premarital sex) are going to hell and — when she's not ranting about Big Pharma wanting to control our uteri, not that any Jezebel would ever hate on the pharmaceutical industry — it's why she's effective. Sometimes, when you're tired or scared or whatever, part of you wants your mom to tell you what to do. And Leslee's apparently very effective at playing Mom and telling you to have the baby.

So who's the Leslee Unruh of the left? Do we even have one? Or in the midst of talking about "safe, legal and rare" to try to convince the right that we're all sort of vaguely in agreement, did we forget to talk enough to scared women about why it's okay to be scared and to have an abortion?

**Please don't body snark her here. There's enough to discuss without that.

Leslee Unruh's Facts Of Life [More]

Los Angeles Times:

The tone of the pilot careens between an after-school special and "American Pie," with a bit of "Pretty in Pink" grabbed along the way. It is almost all about sex — and a little bit about family, but the subject there is largely sex, as well, and why it's not for the young. The sexually active kids we meet are either made unhappy by having it, or they're having it because they're unhappy. (Ricky's compulsion to sleep with every girl who crosses his path is shown to spring from his having been molested by his father.) Amy confides of her deflowering: "I'm not even sure it was sex. It wasn't fun and definitely not like what you see in the movies."

Or they're unhappy because they've never had it. In a most improbable conversation (in a show full of them, nerdy wiseacre Ben (Kenny Baumann) — who has decided almost arbitrarily to pursue Amy by getting himself into the marching band — tells his guidance counselor: "To be perfectly honest, Mark, it's all motivated by the fact that I'm 15, I'm a virgin, and if I want to have a sex life I've got to start somewhere."

Variety:

ABC Family's latest original drama wants to be a slow-motion version of "Juno" but settles for being an obvious, stereotype-laden teen soap, albeit more "North Hollywood, 91607" than the story of what happens in flashier, better-known SoCal zip codes. Series creator Brenda Hampton made family drama with religious underpinnings a long-running success on "7th Heaven," but teen pregnancy — especially on a youth-oriented network — is too important a subject for such shallow, ham-fisted treatment. The topic may find a receptive audience, but based on first impressions, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" should probably stay a secret.

The New York Times:

For a generation of young viewers raised on “The Simpsons,” “South Park” and “Degrassi Junior High” (not to mention reruns of “Sex and the City”) this kind of earnest, sound-out-all-the-syllables agitprop is almost comical, a parody of an after-school special. The occasional lapses into portentous symbolism are inadvertently hilarious. While Amy sneaks into the bathroom to take a home pregnancy test, her mother, played by Molly Ringwald, reheats Amy’s supper in the microwave. At the exact moment that the oven timer rings and reads “End,” Amy stares at the test results that will end life as she knows it.

That part is kind of fun. “Secret Life,” however, actually tries at times to be funny, and that makes it painful to watch. The peripheral presence of Ms. Ringwald, once the teenage heroine of John Hughes classics like “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles,” is almost taunting, a reminder that these teenage morality plays have been made many times before, much better.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Eschewing subtlety for overt exposition at every turn, “Secret Life” fairly screams, “This is a middle-age adult’s fear-mongering perception of high school life circa 2008.” And just in case we weren’t feeling quite old enough, it co-stars Molly Ringwald as the mother of our teenage protagonist. (Add your own “Oh, the humanity!” moan here.) An awkward cross between “7th Heaven” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” it stars Shailene Woodley as Amy, your basic band geek who naturally becomes pregnant after her very first sexual experience — this with the school stud, Ricky (Daren Kagasoff). The screw-’em-and-leave-’em Ricky also carries his own dirty secret, because this is the age of abuse and dysfunction and everyone is driven by internal demons too numerous to even imagine.

New York Daily News:

he Ben character is a smart move. But the real question is whether the writers can make Amy's story compelling or whether they will retreat into all those other soapy dramas.

For what it's worth, about half the teen actions and exchanges in the first episode ring true. So this could go either way.

On the bright side, the show treats the religious teen with respect, not giggles, and a Down syndrome child has an honest and sympathetic role as part of a family. It almost deserves an extra star just for having Ben refer to Blind Lemon Jefferson, a blues legend from the 1920s.

Syracuse.com:

Although the dialogue in the pilot episode was somewhat stilted, possibly owing to the need to hit all of the important issues in the choices teens face in being sexually-active or not, the episode did an excellent job in establishing characters and their familial relationships. Although some older teens might find the show preachy, "The Secret Life..." seems strongly suited to help spark dialogue between junior/senior high school students and their parents.

'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' premieres tonight on ABC Family at 8 p.m.

Earlier: Writer Blames Second-Wave Feminists For Failing To Prevent Teen Pregnancy