Sharron Angle's Very Sour Lemonade

This is just a "What tha'?" snippet of Sharron Angle's Deep Thoughts on abortion via Think Progress, covering the part I was a bit put off and concerned about: the reproductive rights of rape and incest victims, particularly if they are minors.

STOCK: What do you say then to a young girl, I am going to place it as he said it, when a young girl is raped by her father, let’s say, and she is pregnant. How do you explain this to her in terms of wanting her to go through the process of having the baby?

ANGLE: I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade. Well one girl in particular moved in with the adoptive parents of her child, and they both were adopted. Both of them grew up, one graduated from high school, the other had parents that loved her and she also graduated from high school. And I’ll tell you the little girl who was born from that very poor situation came to me when she was 13 and said ‘I know what you did thank you for saving my life.’ So it is meaningful to me to err on the side of life."

She also advises that pregnant teens and rape victims can have their babies on "the sunny side of the street" and should probably let a smile be their umbrella. (She DID NOT say that--on record, that I know of.)

So this hypothetical girl in her anecdote made out in her mind something like the way those lucky Katrina victims made out in the mind of Barbara Bush. Silver linings, you could say.

Of course, lemonade also requires water, sugar, and a pitcher to mix it in, or, you know, you just have squished lemons. To belabor the point and try to back out of the analogy--not everyone can make "lemonade" out of their situation. Try asking that of a pregnant ten-year old who's body isn't mature enough to carry a child. Try asking that of a woman whose abusive ex might use a child to continue to weasel his way into her life and abuse her and the baby.

No wonder she appears to run from her platform at times more than she runs on it. It doesn't look good close up.