Quin Hillyer
Longtime moderate Republican activist Ann Stone, the national chairman of Republicans for Choice, might be expected to be put off by the selection of the outspokenly pro-life Saray Palin. Not exactly. “Actually, I’m thrilled,” Stone said. “She’s a breakthrough for women. She breaks all stereotypes and that’s a good thing.”
“It’s like Nixon going to China,” Stone said. It’s going to take Sarah Palin, who is ardently anti-choice, in order for women to break through this glass ceiling to a national ticket.”
Most importantly, said Stone, “feminists and women can look at her and… Look at the glass half full and say that she can make it through.”
Stone also called for pro-choice Republicans in the Senate to join with Democrats to uphold the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion, but she wasn’t worried about Palin’s influence on that issue: “While she will be able to influence policy as vice president, she is not going to be able to make policy to take others’ rights away. And from what I know of her from people in Alaska, she is enough of a feminist where you can reach out to her perhaps and find some common ground on women’s rights. Certainly, this experience with her daughter being pregnant should make her take pause and consider that abstinence-only education doesn’t work.”
