Whether or not you believe Sarah Palin ignored the Wasila police chief's stance against footing the bill for rape kits, staying intentionally quiet about it until an Alaskan State Representative brought it to light is of little importance in the long run. You can say she had bigger fish to fry in a town of only 9,000 people, but how many fish could there possibly be?

One reason that's passed around about her inaction in the face of charging victims for rape kits (which is wholly unacceptable by any standard as far as I'm concerned), is that the kit includes the "controversial" RU486 ("morning after") pill. It might sound ludicrous to some that she would deny footing the bill over such a thing.

But, here's Palin in her own words, discussing her stance on RU486 as it applies to rape and incest :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v77WekmM8F8

So, lemme get this right. A woman is raped and impregnated by her father, and part of your "counseling session" is "you really ought to keep that baby... you don't want to upset God"? That's just fucking absurd. You're talking about, in many cases, a minor - suddenly thrust into a terrible situation that turns her whole world upside down. And you're going to ask that girl, confused and shattered, to make an adult decision on the spot about carrying an incestually conceived rape baby full term? If you think anyone is going to make a sound decision at that point in their life, under those conditions, then you're either : a fucking idiot, or a complete asshole.

Perhaps my biggest issue on her stance is when she says in the interview above "I'm one who believes that life begins at conception". WTF?

Look, I can BELIEVE the moon is made of cheese but that doesn't make it so. You can BELIEVE whatever the fuck you want - but if science steps in and says "uhh.. no" then you're just staying woefully ignorant.

"But Mitcz.." (I hear some of you thinking) "...if life doesn't begin at conception - when DOES it begin?"

Allow me to pull some science on your asses.

First and foremost, we have to ask ourselves the following questions :

Are we protective of ALL life, or just human life?
If you are protective of ALL life, then you've never stepped on a bug in your life. When driving, you swerve to avoid anything that might hit your windshield, or happen under your tires. You also don't, as in Sarah's case, go hunting and fishing and seek to try and make sure those activities are protected above all other issues in your jurisdiction.

So, we can safely say she's being protective solely of HUMAN life. That's fair, as I'm the same way, and I don't hold any ill will towards someone being protective of human life above all others.

What defines a human?
This may sound like a ridiculous question. But, let's think about it - put yourself in a position of having to explain to, say, an alien race what it is to be human. Would you say "well, we have 2 arms and 2 legs"? If so, you're including almost every mammal that ever walked the earth.

Maybe you'd say "well, opposable thumbs" - but monkeys have those, too. Decision-making abilities? Year-round fertility? Communication skills? None of these things are innately human.

If you go the route of "we can walk upright", that would discount babies up until the day they walk. That would make infanticide legal, and I'm certainly not in favor of that.

I'll quote Carl Sagan on these matters, since he wrote what I consider the "last word" on this subject :

The trouble with these particular developmental milestones is not just that they're arbitrary. More troubling is the fact that none of them involves uniquely human characteristics--apart from the superficial matter of facial appearance. All animals respond to stimuli and move of their own volition. Large numbers are able to breathe. But that doesn't stop us from slaughtering them by the billions. Reflexes and motion are not what make us human.

Other animals have advantages over us--in speed, strength, endurance, climbing or burrowing skills, camouflage, sight or smell or hearing, mastery of the air or water. Our one great advantage, the secret of our success, is thought--characteristically human thought. We are able to think things through, imagine events yet to occur, figure things out. That's how we invented agriculture and civilization. Thought is our blessing and our curse, and it makes us who we are.

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows."