The 2008 presidential campaign has been a major interest and concern for me, as it should be for any college student with the ability to exercise their right to vote their conscience.

The Republican pick for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, is appalling and offensive to any woman – no, any human being – with a brain and an ounce of self-respect. Palin is no feminist. Her policies on abortion and sex education make me hope I never have a daughter that could be affected by them.

This is a woman who cut sex education funding in Alaska and ended up with a 17-year-old knocked up by a hockey player. Beyond that, Palin and other Republicans preach abstinence-only sex education campaigns that don’t work. Remember that string of pregnant girls in Massachusetts? Those girls complained on national television that they couldn’t get birth control. What a nation we live in.

In Palin’s release regarding the pregnant teen, she said that she and her husband were “proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.” I suppose that must be true considering her policy on abortion. Palin is vehemently pro-life. In fact, she is committed, along with McCain, to overturning Roe v. Wade. She doesn’t approve of abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

That may be my main issue with Palin, the first female candidate for this position. This should be monumental. I should be incredibly proud to finally see a woman on the stage. Instead, I am ashamed that my country is letting her run. When I hear that women are pro-life I simply don’t understand. Beyond that, as a victim of sexual assault I consider it devastating to think that a woman may have to carry a child to term conceived from an act of hate. I hope her dad rapes her and she has to carry that child to term. I bet you she wouldn’t. I bet she’d grab a coat hanger herself and take care of it.

During Palin’s address to the nation at the Republican National Convention, I kept seeing the cameras wave across a sign in sprawling red letters with the word “INTEGRITY.” If integrity is walking away from your family when it is falling apart and believing in numerous policies that consistently degrade women, then I guess she does have integrity. There is no definition of a good mother, but leaving a special needs son and a 17-year-old pregnant daughter while beginning a strenuous political campaign for the vice presidency is irresponsible.

McCain is downright geriatric at the ripe age of 72. Putting Palin in second chair is terrifying. Palin said that we overlooked the “guts” of McCain. I guess I did. I didn’t think he’d stoop this low. If they win, you can find me in Canada where I can have my abortion.

Briana Monasky can be reached at [email protected]