The Feminism Police Charges Governor Palin

David McGrath is apparently the newly appointed feminism police. In his first official duty he's charged Governor Palin with not being feminist enough. And what does he use as his measuring stick? Her pro-life commitment, among other things. Not only does he attack the authenticity of her feminism, he finds her guilty of much worse. According to him, she's a threat to the overall freedom of women.

So rather than trying to verify speeches, op-eds, or chapters in her book, the more reliable indicators of her integrity are her actions. And there’s no more glaring example of the Palin “sham factor” than her position on women’s rights.

That’s because Palin, in spite of implying an alliance with the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is a veritable chauvinist, whose politics imprison women in their “proper” place.

It's a sad, sad day when one is deemed a threat to women because they have the unmitigated temerity to speak up for the unborn, to defend those who cannot defend themselves. How did we come to this place that one can only be revered a friend to women if she encourages them to annihilate the very life growing inside them, baiting them into destroying flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone? Is it that position, in today's society, that guarantees one the praise of the women's movement? Yes, we have become so backwards that this crazed mindset is what has come to be called progress. There was a time when women scraped and scrapped to protect their young--at any and all cost--and that was the mark of true womanhood. Animals still do it. Yet we, civilized, rational human beings have now reached a place where some have the nerve to measure our femininity by our willingness to destroy what we once would have given our lives to protect. Governor Palin has asked that America embrace a culture of life, and that perspective is somehow considered death to the success of women.

The Governor refuses to subscribe to that thinking, and, as we know, she's not just talking the talk. Her position has been tested in her own life. That fact, however, seems to have been lost on McGrath who writes:

As usual, she talks a different game. In her vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden in the fall of 2008, she identified herself as a feminist, asserting she supports equal rights for women. She pointed to her own experience to prove women can “do it all.”

In reality, women in America have been “doing it all” long before Sarah Palin was born. As early as 1960, 40 percent of women with school-aged children were keeping a house while also working outside the home. The figure is 70 percent today.

Clearly McGrath is the one talking out of both sides of his mouth. How can he in one breath state that women are capable of "doing it all" and in the next blast Governor Palin for believing the same thing, not just for herself but for all women? She wants women to know that they can work, reach their full potential, and still cherish their unborn. If women have been doing it all for eons, why does he lack the faith that a woman who finds herself in "less than ideal circumstances" can do just that? And why his hypocritical attack on a woman who does have that faith? Add to that the fact that he doesn't have a good grasp of the facts, stating lies in the article about the Governor's position on contraception and her record regarding benefits to same-sex couples in the state of Alaska, and one wonders what qualifies him to speak at all.

Governor Palin is not guilty of imprisoning women. People like McGrath are. He frames her as an unfeeling, hard person who cares not for the plight and progress of women. The truth is those guilty of such are the ones who refuse to tell women the truth about abortion. I have to fight the urge to release my inner Joe Wilson and yell, "Liar!" to those who pretend to have a woman's best interest at heart while encouraging her to do what's been proven to cause her harm: abort her own.

Let's look at the facts:

There is a proven link between abortion and breast cancer. Anyone who chooses to ignore this and refuses to inform women of this link, in their effort to support a so-called right to choose, is no friend to women. Research these facts here and here. An article here asserts that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, but that theory is blown away by the second link above.

Research has also shown a link between abortion and depression. This is another fact that these self-proclaimed friends of women ignore and don't want to tell them. Read it for yourself here and here. The statistics are astounding, and if people like McGrath really have such great love for women, why is it such a sin to present the facts? Please don't tell me you're a friend when your silence disempowers and endangers me. As the saying goes, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Governor Palin's pro-life position is not a threat to the well-being of women. On the contrary, she's simply putting her money where her mouth is. She's standing up for life--for both mother and child. Governor Palin's refusal to bend on this issue reveals the heart of a true feminist, for that she is. She was raised in a family where the girls were expected to do what the guys did, she continues to prove that a wife and mother can have a career and still love and nurture her family, she demonstrated that even when the unexpected happened, she could give birth to the gift God gave her, rather than aborting that gift. Contrast that with people who refuse to acknowledge a woman's ability to handle such challenges and refuse to acknowledge the danger their brand of feminism poses to a woman's overall well-being.

David McGrath's attack on Governor Palin is further evidence of Palin Derangement Syndrome that defies all reason and common sense. If vehemently advocating abortion and all its ills is what Feminist Officer David McGrath requires to label one a true feminist, then the Governor falls grossly short, no doubt. However, if a commitment to women's rights, faith in women's ability to "do it all," including loving her offspring, and advocacy for women's overall health and success are anywhere in the feminist definition, Governor Palin is its epitome.

Read David McGrath's full article here, and below see the video explaining the danger of abortion on women's health.

(H/T Sheya)