Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-abortion advocate Gloria Steinem is going after Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for his vice-presidential running mate. She says Palin, who takes a strongly pro-life view on abortion, shares nothing with women like former candidate Hillary Clinton other than the same genetic makeup determining their gender.

Calling her the “wrong woman with the wrong message,” in a Los Angeles Times editorial Thursday, Steinem goes on the attack from the get-go.

“Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger,” Steinem complains, comparing the Alaska governor to the venerable pro-life advocate.

“Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president,” Steinem writes.

For the arch-feminist, Palin’s pro-life views -- as evidenced by her decision not to have an abortion when she learned earlier this year her unborn child had Down syndrome -- are the most worrisome.

“She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child,” Steinem claimed in the attack piece. “She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.”

She says McCain’s picking Palin was “to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom.”

But, not all women are down on Palin and others say she represents the long-standing history of women who have been pro-life on abortion -- down to Susan B. Anthony.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of a pro-life women’s group that bears the name of the feminist foremother, tells LifeNews.com that Anthony attended the Republican convention in 1892, the last time it was held in Minneapolis.

“This year’s election carries historic implications of its own, this time with the first ever female pro-life vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin,” Dannenfelser said.

Anthony would vote for McCain and Palin, Dannenfelser maintains.

“Would Susan B. Anthony vote for Senators McCain or Obama? Given her consistent and unyielding commitment to human rights including the right to life, I’d say she’d vote McCain,” she said.

Dannenfelser said Palin represents the women of America -- perhaps moreso than Steinem -- because she understands that women’s rights can’t be advanced when the human rights of their offspring are denied.

“Authentic women’s rights will never be built upon the broken rights of other human beings. Both parties would do well to observe, embrace, and benefit from the strong and documented pro-life trend in America,” she said.

Related web sites:
Susan B. Anthony List - http://www.sba-list.org

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