Having been thwarted once Governor Palin orchestrates the introduction of an Abortion Initiative.

Gov. Sarah Palin is backing a ballot measure to bypass the Legislature and make it illegal for teenagers to get an abortion without telling their parents.

The initiative sponsors, including former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, applied last week to start gathering signatures. The measure would generally forbid a girl under 18 from getting an abortion unless the doctor informed at least one of her parents beforehand.

Palin said she plans to be the first in line to sign up. The governor said she even considered sponsoring the initiative herself, but decided otherwise after checking with the state's lawyers.

"I got a preliminary opinion from Law (Department) just giving me a heads up that critics would certainly file an ethics charge against me if I were to sponsor an initiative (Well at least she got that one right). So though I maintain I have First Amendment rights just as any other citizen does, I won't flirt with the notion of giving critics more ammunition to keep filing wasteful ethics charges against me, but instead I'll volunteer to be the first signature," Palin said.

It is kind of funny, I was just talking to AKM the other day about how there are things in the Democratic platform that we struggle to accept.  We are good progressives,but you know sometimes we just wish there were positions that were not so rigid.

For me that issue is abortion.  I cannot be described as somebody who supports abortion (of course I have never really met a Democrat who could), but I am educated on the topic well enough to realize that the position of the other side is simply barbaric.  If we are to limit the number of abortions without outlawing them than we need some serious sex education, and yet they oppose that absolutely.

They would love it if every single possible birth were to be realized even though the planet can barely sustain the current population.  I believe the idea is to create a vast army of Christian soldiers to combat the forces of "evil", I imagine that to be anyone who disagrees with their religious viewpoint.  You can read more about that here.

But the fact is that children need to be protected, from a potential predator, from circumstance, and sometimes from their own parents.

The abortion rights group Planned Parenthood will oppose the initiative. Many teens come from unhealthy families and could take dangerous steps to avoid the consequences that would come from facing their parents, said Clover Simon, the Alaska vice president of Planned Parenthood.

"I'm afraid that young women in that situation are going to see this and they're just not going to get any help at all and they are going to take things into their own hand. ... If you Google abortion or self-induced abortion you can get all kinds of bad advice," she said.

Palin, a Republican, blamed "inflexibility by some senators" for the bill not passing. She said a young girl should have the counsel of her parents in such a major decision.(In a different world I might be in total agreement with the Governor on this topic.  But I have seen the statistics and know people close to me who have suffered because of a lack of education and medical advice.)

But Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bettye Davis, who chairs the Health Committee, said the bill needs more work. Davis said she's going to make an effort on it over the summer and when the Legislature comes back into session next January. Davis said the bill has problematic issues like forcing the teen to wait 48 hours to have the abortion even after telling a parent. The bill requires compromise on both sides, she said.

"If they want to do an initiative they have a right to do that; it might be the way they are going to get it done," Davis said.

I guess the thing about this that really irritates me is that until recently Palin has not tried to push through this particular agenda item.  We all know that she is a member of a very primitive evangelical movement, and that she is absolutely opposed to ANY sort of abortion, but until just this last few months she has not tried to do anything to push her beliefs onto her fellow Alaskans.

So why now?

Because this has nothing to do with her fellow Alaskans.  This is all about her national standing.  

In spite of how badly her image has been damaged, and despite the charismatic and popular President we now have in office, Sarah Palin STILL believes she has a shot at the presidency.

I am not sure the often applied label of Narcissist is a diagnosis that completely explains this incredible level of mental illness.  What kind of person could not see that her political career is in tatters and that she needs to shift her focus to something that will bring her less personal scrutiny and allow her family to heal itself?

I know you all hate it when I feel sorry for the Governor, but let's face it the lady needs some serious help.

Maybe we should start a "Get Sarah a Psychiatrist" fund.

By the way, this initiative will fail.  But that really does not matter to Sarah, she is only going through the motions to impress her national audience. Remember it is not about Alaskans, I am not sure it ever was.