Sarah Palin's record shows that she's not pro-life, she's pro-punishment for teen sex

Tonight Sarah Palin will accept her party's nomination for the presidency of the United States. She's flying in her prospective son-in-law for the occasion. No word on whether Todd Palin will be standing behind Levi Johnston with a shotgun. She will use her daughter and a high school boy as poster children for the so-called "pro-life movement". It remains to be seen whether these two unfortunate kids will be able to muster the necessary smiles.

For all that Cindy McCain has decided that living in proximity to Russia means that you have foreign policy expertise, the Palin selection is about one thing and one thing only: abortion. Because regulating sex between unmarried people, deciding who is allowed to marry, doing everything possible to ensure that sex results in chidlren, and punishing the transgressions of those who do not abstain, is the four-legged stool of the Christian right. So two kids who are decidedly not ready for marriage are going to be served up to the Republican delegates to further Sarah Palin's career.

You'd think that Palin's pro-life stance would include a record of providing care for teen mothers, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong. Because as governor of Alaska, she slashed funding for a program that provided a place to live for teen moms who had nowhere to go:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

I guess she figured that teen moms who are thrown out of the house by their parents deserve their punishment for their sins. Scratch the surface of the most ardent fetophiles, and you'll find punishment for young women as a motivation every single time.