Oh no!

Canadian doctor warns Sarah Palin's decision to have Down baby could reduce abortions

[Some] fear Ms. Palin's emergence as a parental role model sends a different message. As a vocal opponent of abortion, Ms. Palin's widely discussed decision to keep her baby, knowing he would be born with the condition, may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same, according to André Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
Dr. Lalonde said that above all else, women must be free to choose, and that popular messages to the contrary could have detrimental effects on women and their families.
"The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada," he said.

And Mark Shea asks the hard questions (not really.... they're just the acknowledgment of the Elephant in the Room questions that would only be asked in more widely disseminated media by a Jon Stewart, (if he weren't on the wrong side on this issue.)

I thought the goal was "safe, legal, and rare"? Golly, who could foresee that somebody who profits from death would want to have more death to profit from? And who could possibly have imagined that those who target a particular population for murder would come to hate that population in order to convince itself that the murders are justified and they aren't committing grave evil? And who could have foreseen that somebody who defies this murderous wisdom and chooses to love a baby with Down's instead of kill him would become a national lightning rod for all the guilt, shame, fear, and rage that comes from making this appallingly wicked choice? And who could have predicted that the very people who profit from the exploitation of this evil would continue encourage the hatred and tell soothing lies on behalf of the evil?

Listen, I'm not "for" Sarah Palin, I'm not a conservative, I'm not a Republican.
I'm also not, nor do I feel any special affinity for one who is, a gun owner, a Pentecostalist, a mother, an Alaskan, and outdoorsy type, a wearer of little squarish spectacles....
But like Mr. Shea, I can see plenty of legitimate things on which to attack her, and I am fascinated by so many having chosen several things that all boil down to this about her: "I am part of a family and we aren't perfect, and we make mistakes and have misfortunes, but we try to do the right thing and killing someone to obliterate mistakes and misfortunes ain't never the 'right thing' so we carry on...."
(May I say I am also fascinated by the "other side's" obsession with pigs and lipstick, and by the patent absurdity of the charges, the wide availability of incontrovertible evidence that they themselves commit the same "sin" with impunity... or are the spin doctors really smart and do they know for a fact that most voters are paying only the most perfunctory attention, so if they throw enough mud, enough mud will stick to be worth the effort, on balance?)

And get a load o' this ugly nonsense: [Palin] added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote.
That's a foul canard -- I am a certifiable Spam-eater, and I haven't made up my mind....