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Bristol Palin, a Baby and Abstinence-Only Education
Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant. The good news: Her family supports her. The bad news: Palin's office may have been caught misleading the press.
When John McCain decided he was going to tag Palin to his Republican ticket, he apparently knew that Bristol was carrying a child. That's what his campaign said today. But the Anchorage Daily News, Palin's hometown paper, asked the governor's office about pregnancy rumors Saturday.
The response from her press secretary, Bill McAllister: "I don't know. I have no evidence that Bristol's pregnant."
Either a press secretary is lying (that's been known to happen!), or nobody told him Bristol's story. Regardless, people were bound to find out eventually. False rumors suggesting that Palin's youngest son was actually Bristol's, a switch made in an elaborate cover-up effort, made things even more salacious.
Palin, soon to be a 44-year-old hockey grandma, is a hard-right conservative, which many politicos have pointed out is a great thing for Republicans looking to energize their evangelical base. But here, it's a bit problematic. The freshman governor of Alaska has opposed any form of sex education unless it's abstinence-only.
Abstinence-only education is very simple: Don't do it. Ever.
Other forms of sex education would be to tell kids: Don't do it. But if you do, wear a condom. (Or make sure the girl isn't the daughter of John McCain's running mate.)
The McCain campaign, and even Barack Obama's, are warning the press to avoid invading the privacy of Palin's family. It's a sensitive line to walk for the governor, who must stick by her conservative convictions of opposing more progressive sex education but at the same time acknowledge that her own daughter isn't following that philosophy. Conservatives are also suggesting that the Palin family troubles are making her seem more like the average American, and not hurting her as much as Democrats may think.
And, the Palins' announcement that Bristol is keeping the baby and marrying the father only reinforces the image of a supportive family caring for one of its members in need. Maybe that positive image will overshadow the DUI Palin's husband got when he was 22.
However, Bristol's story is also one that carries the themes of Obama's campaign: hope and change. As in, the McCain campaign can only hope this news changes the opinions of most voters' minds.
Though perhaps Steve Schmidt, a McCain spokesman, said it best:
"Life happens."
When John McCain decided he was going to tag Palin to his Republican ticket, he apparently knew that Bristol was carrying a child. That's what his campaign said today. But the Anchorage Daily News, Palin's hometown paper, asked the governor's office about pregnancy rumors Saturday.
The response from her press secretary, Bill McAllister: "I don't know. I have no evidence that Bristol's pregnant."
Either a press secretary is lying (that's been known to happen!), or nobody told him Bristol's story. Regardless, people were bound to find out eventually. False rumors suggesting that Palin's youngest son was actually Bristol's, a switch made in an elaborate cover-up effort, made things even more salacious.
Palin, soon to be a 44-year-old hockey grandma, is a hard-right conservative, which many politicos have pointed out is a great thing for Republicans looking to energize their evangelical base. But here, it's a bit problematic. The freshman governor of Alaska has opposed any form of sex education unless it's abstinence-only.
Abstinence-only education is very simple: Don't do it. Ever.
Other forms of sex education would be to tell kids: Don't do it. But if you do, wear a condom. (Or make sure the girl isn't the daughter of John McCain's running mate.)
The McCain campaign, and even Barack Obama's, are warning the press to avoid invading the privacy of Palin's family. It's a sensitive line to walk for the governor, who must stick by her conservative convictions of opposing more progressive sex education but at the same time acknowledge that her own daughter isn't following that philosophy. Conservatives are also suggesting that the Palin family troubles are making her seem more like the average American, and not hurting her as much as Democrats may think.
And, the Palins' announcement that Bristol is keeping the baby and marrying the father only reinforces the image of a supportive family caring for one of its members in need. Maybe that positive image will overshadow the DUI Palin's husband got when he was 22.
However, Bristol's story is also one that carries the themes of Obama's campaign: hope and change. As in, the McCain campaign can only hope this news changes the opinions of most voters' minds.
Though perhaps Steve Schmidt, a McCain spokesman, said it best:
"Life happens."
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Joshua Sharp
7:42PM 7:42PM Sep 1st 2008
Underage = Off-limits
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dreamhomemike
9:28AM 9:28AM Sep 2nd 2008
This story is such a non-story! Teaching abstinence is designed to REDUCE unwanted pregnancies. Common sense tells you that it cannot eliminate it all together, but it is noble to at least work to reduce them. Young pregnancies are unforetunatley a common practice now, and is a private matter among families.
No big surprise that the Obama surrogates are going to demonize Palin. Obama, to his credit, has rightly said that family matters are off the table, and it should be. That has nothing to do with governing.
The Democrats want to make a joke of her, because they are nervous of what she brings to the ticket. Many will continue to unfairly demonize her in every way, and it will most likely backfire. It's amazing how they fall for this trap, and how little they truly understand the electorate. People, for the most part, want candidates that are fresh to Washington, and will get something done to clean it up. Obama is the Democratic candidate not because of his experience, obviously, but because he represents something new, and they've packaged him well. He lost some of that when he didn't have the guts to pick a VP with the same 'change' message, and went with typical old Biden to make up for his lack of experience.
Mccain is an old guy, but he has a record of reform, and has always been a Senator that realizes that Washington is broken. He still the potential to be part of the solution, and not the problem. Palin thinks the same way, so it compliments him nicely. His pick will either be a Grand Slam home run or a strikeout. We'll find out soon enough which way it goes. I think the pick is a breath of fresh Alaska air blown right into the lungs of stale Washington. At the end of the day, people vote for the TOP of the ticket. Gonna be a fun next 2 months......
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NS
4:36PM 4:36PM Sep 5th 2008
We have an obligation to provide our children with medically accurate information about reproduction, sex, and sexually transmitted diseases. These topics need to be covered in schools because we all know that not every parent out there is capable of teaching their children the facts about sex. However, absolutely think that part of comprehensive sex-ed includes discussing and encouraging abstinence and healthy sexual relationships. We owe it to our children to give them all of the tools that they need to make good decisions about sex, and develop fulfilling relationships.
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David Huston
1:14PM 1:14PM Sep 2nd 2008
Pardon the old joke, but you know what they call folks who practice abstinance? Mothers. What intrigues more is the apparent fact that Governor Palin was a 1990's supporter of a political group that advocated secession from the Union for Alaska; sort of a reverse Abraham Lincoln approach.
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Antonia
8:13PM 8:13PM Sep 2nd 2008
Interesting theory. I grew up in the 1980s, practiced abstinence, and became a mother for the first time as a married woman at the age of 26. But, oh, how I was ridiculed at school by the other kids because I was a virgin. Signs held up in chem. class (teacher facing blackboard while writing on it): "Antonia eats gorilla dicks." (Not my real name.) Regular ostracticism because I made different choices with my body - choices that would keep my future FREE to become whatever I was destined to become, without concerns of a baby on board.
Now I have a happy family of a loving husband, three children, no abortions, no lovers to compare my husband to and make me unhappy with him...It was the right way to go. I thank God for the message of abstinence that my church and my parents taught me. No thanks to my school sex ed.!
I became a professional performer in the arts and a schoolteacher in the arts, and am very happy with my choice of abstinence while I was a teen. No regrets! No tragedy! No crisis of conscience! No feeling thrown away after consummating a relationship with an immature boy! No being talked about behind my back in the locker room. That is the best way to go through one's teens - with purpose, good clean fun, dignity, and pride in one's self.
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Anna
11:43AM 11:43AM Sep 4th 2008
Palin and daughter surely never had a discussion about safe sex---they were taught in was in God's plan. Aren't evangelicals taught that the "flesh is weak?" So go buy condoms or pills if your "flesh is weak. Does this make sense to anyone????
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Wenalway
2:51AM 2:51AM Sep 20th 2008
The recent trend of fools claiming “abstinence-only” education is somehow to blame for teen pregnancies is an unfortunate off-shoot of this dialogue. The people making this claim offer no proof and no tangible connection between the two concepts. Last I checked, journalism was supposed to be about facts, and one side has provided zero to back up its claims. To me, zero facts = zero credibility, yet these people go right on chanting.
The other laughable part of their claim comes when they make some ad hominem claim like: “I have sex, and I’m monogamous,” as if somehow the accomplishment of connecting a reproductive organ with someone else on a consistent basis makes the person an expert on what national education policy should be.
Also, a monogamous sexual relationship — even if it were somehow relevant to the shaping of national policy — would be mostly irrelevant to the target audience, which is students in their early teens. Yet this piece of logic manages to slip past the anti-responsibility crowd.
Finally, these people claim to be “street smart,” yet they are selectively ignorant of the existence of anyone who has dealt with an unintended pregnancy. They also cling to percentages that should raise their awareness of the risk of a life-changing event, but somehow they rationalize these into a belief they’re at no risk at all.
Anyway, we haven’t addressed the myriad people with these beliefs who simply are not ready for a sexual relationship, but we’ll save that one for another session. Remember, responsibility is the only factual, rational decision here.
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Wenalway
1:31PM 1:31PM Sep 20th 2008
The recent trend of fools claiming “abstinence-only” education is somehow to blame for teen pregnancies is an unfortunate off-shoot of this dialogue. The people making this claim offer no proof and no tangible connection between the two concepts. Last I checked, journalism was supposed to be about facts, and one side has provided zero to back up its claims. To me, zero facts = zero credibility, yet these people go right on chanting.
The other laughable part of their claim comes when they make some ad hominem claim like: “I have sex, and I’m monogamous,” as if somehow the accomplishment of connecting a reproductive organ with someone else on a consistent basis makes the person an expert on what national education policy should be.
Also, a monogamous sexual relationship — even if it were somehow relevant to the shaping of national policy — would be mostly irrelevant to the target audience, which is students in their early teens. Yet this piece of logic manages to slip past the anti-responsibility crowd.
Finally, these people claim to be “street smart,” yet they are selectively ignorant of the existence of anyone who has dealt with an unintended pregnancy. They also cling to percentages that should raise their awareness of the risk of a life-changing event, but somehow they rationalize these into a belief they’re at no risk at all.
Anyway, we haven’t addressed the myriad people with these beliefs who simply are not ready for a sexual relationship, but we’ll save that one for another session. Remember, responsibility is the only factual, rational decision here.
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