Opinion: Public should know if Palin considered abortion
September 21st, 2008John Krull, writing in the Indianapolis Star, says journalists should ask Sarah Palin whether she and her husband talked about abortion when they got a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Krull is director of the Pulliam School of Journalism at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, and former executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.
A colleague objects, he says, judging the question to be “too personal.”
Asking Sarah Palin whether she ever considered having an abortion is intensely personal. So is asking Barack Obama about his relationship with his minister and his faith. The same goes for asking John McCain about the collapse of his first marriage or Joe Biden about his grief at the deaths of family members.
But Palin, Obama, McCain and Biden are asking us something intensely personal, too. They’re asking us to trust them
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on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 8:11 am and is filed under Campaign 2008, Down syndrome, abortion, commentary, genetics, media, politics, prenatal diagnosis.
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September 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
When my daughter was born 9 years ago, my wife and I had never heard of of trisomy-21. We certainly had no concept of how much joy a child with Down syndrome would add to our lives.
Yes, it’s intensely personal to ask Sarah Palin whether she ever considered having an abortion. But given what she is asking of the American voting public, and how little we know of her, I wish she would have taken the opportunity.
She could have — and in her position I think she should have — created a teachable moment for Americans of all political stripes to learn more about Down syndrome and other developmental disABILITIES. And in doing so allow more of America to find out something, anything, about Sarah Palin.
For the sake of my daughter’s future, I hope the next time she’s asked a question like that, she opens the door and provides a genuine answer.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:38 am
No they shouldn’t. I’m no fan of hers - can’t stomach the woman. But her private thoughts about her pregnancy are here business, nobody else’s.