WaPo’s Ruth Marcus gets it right:

Respect Is a Two-Way Street

A few more thoughts about Sarah Palin and her daughter’s pregnancy. “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby,” Todd and Sarah Palin said in their statement Monday. But of course, in the world according to Palin, Bristol would have had no “decision” to make: The choice of whether to continue with the pregnancy would not be hers to make.

Same with the governor’s decision, after learning that her own baby had Down syndrome, not to have an abortion. That’s a judgment I certainly respect, but it is not one that should be forced on any woman in that difficult circumstance. I had my children at ages 37 and 39, old enough that the risk of Down syndrome was elevated, as it was for Palin, and my doctor recommended amniocentesis. Had the results indicated any abnormality, I have little doubt that I would have made a different decision than did Palin. I have no doubt that such an agonizing choice should have been up to my husband and me, not to the government.

Which is where, of course, Palin would leave it. She opposes abortion in all circumstances, except to save the life of the mother. In other words, no exceptions for rape, for incest, for genetic abnormalities or in circumstances where the woman’s health is seriously endangered. I respect the Palins’ choices. I only wish they would show as much respect for others to exercise their own, free of government imposing it on them.

Sarah Palin, and people of her ilk, have no business being in American politics. Maybe governing in Iran or some such other place where ‘rights’ and ‘choice’ are terms unheard of. But not in a country built and shaped around those very words.

Say “NO!” to McCain/Palin this November. Say “No!”, and spare this great country one huge leap back into the stone age.