Academic

Have We Won the Rhetorical Issue on Choice?

By David S. Cohen

Sarah and Todd Palin’s announcement of their daughter’s pregnancy included this statement:  “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.”

And when John McCain was asked during the 2000 primary what his response would be if his daughter were pregnant, he said:  “it would be a ‘family decision.’  ‘The final decision would be made by Meghan with our advice and counsel,’ McCain said, referring to himself and his wife, Cindy. When reporters suggested that this view made him, in fact, pro-choice, McCain became irritated. ‘I don?t think it is the pro-choice position to say that my daughter and my wife and I will discuss something that is a family matter that we have to decide.’”

Both statements from these pro-life candidates indicate that there is a decision to be made.  Or, using more loaded language, a choice.  Both statements indicate that choice would be made by the people involved - the pregnant woman and, if she wants to include them, her family.  There’s no more accurate statement of the pro-choice position than that.

So, we’ve either won the rhetorical issue, or there really never has been a debate in the first place, at least on the personal level.  Rather, anti-choice individuals are quick to condemn others for making a choice they don’t like, but when their own family (or they themselves) are faced with an unwanted or unwanted pregnancy, most people, including those who label themselves anti-choice, think of it as a choice what to do next.

- David S. Cohen

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).