Under normal circumstances, it's sad, but it's hardly news when an unwed 17-year-old girl ends up pregnant.

As of last week, though, there's nothing normal about this teenager's world, which is why this anguished time in her young life has become fodder for media and bloggers around the globe. That's what happens when your mother knows you're expecting but runs for vice president anyway and then sees fit to release a statement about your pregnancy to squelch rumors about her own.

Sarah Palin announced to the world Monday that her daughter is five months pregnant and plans to marry the young father. Palin made this information public to rebut blogger rumors that her own infant son is actually her daughter's and that Palin was engaged in a cover-up.

Bloggers? She outed her daughter to slap a handful of mean-spirited bloggers?

The usual assortment of pundits, mostly male, are tap-dancing around the pregnancy, insisting the real issue is one of candidate vetting, not parental responsibility. That's good for what's left of this poor girl's privacy, but this skittish chitchat doesn't come close to reflecting the millions of conversations among regular Americans.

I had not written a word about Palin when I signed on to my computer Monday, but my inboxes were brimming with e-mail and voice messages from women who were outraged that Palin decided to run for such a high-profile office when she had to know it would bring unbearable scrutiny onto her daughter. If Palin didn't expect this, she's even less experienced than her résumé suggests.

The stark reality of politics is that there is no such thing anymore as a solo candidate. Every candidate has a family. The higher the candidate's office the more intrusive the scrutiny into the personal lives of those who love the candidate, and Palin invited this the moment she trotted out her brood to a cheering crowd in Dayton, Ohio, last week. She introduced all the children who were present and bragged about being a "hockey mom." Clearly, she was telegraphing that first and foremost, she is a mother.

Of course, she also played the girlfriend card, tossing out the names of Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton as if they were her sisters united in the cause for women. Great, except that Palin doesn't agree with much of anything Ferraro and Clinton have been championing for decades, especially reproductive rights.

In Palin's world, abortion is not an option, even in the cases of rape or incest, unless the mother's life is threatened. The question for Palin is just how much prison time a woman should serve if she chooses to abort her rapist's baby.

Many are still reeling from the suggestion that the same women who supported Hillary Clinton would turn around and vote for a radical conservative such as Palin out of — what? — spite ? The notion that droves of women would shift their allegiances because any skirt will do illustrates an astonishing disregard for the collective intelligence of our gender. Not that this is anything new in politics, but, man, did they have to be so obvious?

And now this.

Some of the same conservatives who object to sex before marriage and think a mother belongs at home are now cheering full-time candidate Sarah Palin for raising a teenager who decided to keep her baby.

As if this child had any choice. Much of her mother's short political career and virtually all of her appeal as a vice presidential candidate are staked on her opposition to a woman's right to an abortion. The legal option available to most 17-year-old girls with unplanned pregnancies was never really a choice for this girl unless she was willing to derail her mother's political career.

So pundits can yak all they want about how a 17-year-old girl's pregnancy has nothing to do with this presidential campaign.

Millions of women know otherwise.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.