This blog doesn't need to be all Kardashian all the time, but it's worth noting in this space that not only is Kourtney Kardashian talking about her unplanned pregnancy, she is also talking about ambivalence and abortion - both incredibly common in these situations but both incredibly absent from most Hollywood baby bump coverage.

I don't know a whole lot about Kourtney - I don't watch her show and I'm not sure what sort of extraordinary things she's done to deserve a show - but what she told People magazine makes her sound like a normal person and not a creation of publicists:

"I definitely thought about it long and hard, about if I wanted to keep the baby or not, and I wasn't thinking about adoption."

"For me, all the reasons why I wouldn't keep the baby were so selfish: It wasn't like I was raped, it's not like I'm 16. I'm 30 years old, I make my own money, I support myself, I can afford to have a baby. And I am with someone who I love, and have been with for a long time."

That a "celebrity" would give voice to those feelings and ideas is refreshing because that's what we hear so often from regular people who live far outside the spotlight.

Less refreshing is what her doctor told her when she sought medical counsel about what to do: "My doctor told me there is nothing you will ever regret about having the baby, but he was like, 'You may regret not having the baby.' And I was like: That is so true."

One would hope that a physician would have a more balanced opinion about terminating an unplanned (and perhaps unwanted) pregnancy, but let's hope for the baby's sake the doctor was right this time.

I come to praise Sarah Palin, not to bury her. 

As part of her post-election media tour, Governor Palin appeared on CNN's Larry "Older Than Moses" King Show.  When asked about her pregnant teenage daughter Bristol,  Palin had this to say:

"You know, I looked at her and thought---and I thought, Bristol, honey, you're going to have to grow up really fast...She's going to make a great mom.  And she---she is very strong.  She's going to be just fine.   

But Bristol has an opportunity at this point also to reach out to other young American women and let them know that these are absolutely less than ideal circumstances that she or any other unwed teenage mother are in.  And it is not something to glamorize.  It's not something to condone, if you will.  Bristol has an opportunity to reach out to other young mothers and help them and, hopefully, not see such a prevalence, also, of unwed teenage mothers.  The rates are too high." 

Although we all might quibble with the exact language the Governor used --- and I'm sure most of us wish she had made this sort of statement earlier in the Campaign (see this op-ed from our friend Saul Hoffman) --- nonetheless, this strikes me as a strong and important statement from a leading R.