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Double Standard-Bearers

Give Sarah Palin her due. If nothing else, she’s saving Republicans from pretending that Joe Lieberman is a model conservative just because he could rock that “bomb, bomb, bomb” duet. But her eager partisans should find talking points that don’t involve congratulating Alaska’s favorite hockey mom for having a son with Down Syndrome. My mother […]

Give Sarah Palin her due. If nothing else, she’s saving Republicans from pretending that Joe Lieberman is a model conservative just because he could rock that “bomb, bomb, bomb” duet.

But her eager partisans should find talking points that don’t involve congratulating Alaska’s favorite hockey mom for having a son with Down Syndrome. My mother did, and no one gave her a medal (or made her veep). She didn’t consider it high heroism not to kill her baby because he came with an extra chromosome.

Have even pro-lifers adopted the eugenic assumption that a genetically imperfect child is less deserving of life? That the abortion of a healthy baby is a tragedy but not killing a disabled one shows extraordinary grace? If not, praise Palin equally for not aborting children one through four.

Granted, the incidence of Down Syndrome has declined in recent years, even as average maternal age has crept upward—an indication of how many of these children aren’t allowed to be born. Studies show that some 91 percent of those diagnosed prenatally are aborted.

This makes Palin part of a moral minority. But gushing over that compromises the pro-life argument and patronizes her boy. There are plenty of other things to like about Sarah Palin. Pick a better one.

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