Monday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said

Today's honorees: Christy Hardin Smith, who is in a better position than most of us to know why a woman's right to determine her own destiny is between her, her family, and her doctor AND NO ONE ELSE, least of all Sarah Palin and her false Army of God; and Marie Cocco, to whom Christy links.

Money quotes:

Smith:

Now you know why I feel so strongly about this issue. Because I've lived it and because my entire adult life has forced this issue to the forefront. Life is messy and people get caught up in situations that are not of their own making far too often. We never asked for an ectopic pregnancy, but we got one nonetheless. Pro-life folks want you to think that abortion is the only facet of being pro-choice but they could not be more wrong or dishonest.

Being pro-choice is to be compassionate and honest about the world around us, and to value the life of the mother just as much as the life within her -- and to trust the women and others involved in each circumstance to weigh all of the issues involved. Because that is what they already do. Most of the women that I have ever known who faced unenviable difficulties in these decisions chose to have their child where it was medically possible. Which is...a choice.

Pretending otherwise is simply to lie.

Cocco:

Anti-abortion activists promote a policy of official meddling — yes, by government bureaucrats — into the private lives of millions of American women, and the lives of their husbands and boyfriends.

Their pleas to now give the Palin family privacy in one of its most difficult moments are easily understood and no doubt supported by every American who has ever had a family crisis. That is, by all of us.

No one who supports abortion rights would wish for any unmarried, 17-year-old girl to become pregnant. No advocate of abortion rights would even suggest that a teenager in Bristol's situation should terminate the pregnancy without weighing her own conscience and deciding, with her family, on her own course.

And yes, we believe she should make her decisions in a private cocoon, embraced by loving family and friends. We just wish that anti-abortion crusaders would afford every family the same respect for privacy they now demand for one of their own.