Once the news came out that 17 year-old Bristol Palin, the 17 year-old daughter of Republic Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is five month’s pregnant, people started focusing on the father. Sarah Palin released a statement yesterday acknowledging her daughter’s pregnancy and saying that she was due to marry the father, 18 year-old Levi Johnston. Outlets quickly found Johnston’s MySpace page, pointing out that he made some moderately obnoxious statements on it, as teenage boys often do. He had some expletive-laden statement on his Myspace about how he’s a redneck. Johnston also said he didn’t want children. He hasn’t accessed the page in over a year, though, so he wrote all that stuff when he was 17 or younger. Teenagers can change a lot in a year. Johnston is about to become a dad and a husband, so he’ll need to do some maturing fast if he wants to make his marriage and family work.
The NY Daily News points out that just about everyone in Bristol Palin’s small community in Wasilla, Alaska has known for at least a few weeks that she’s pregnant. She’s been with Levi Johnston for over a year and they were attending the same high school up until mid year last year.
He’s a superhunky bad-boy ice hockey player from cold country; she’s a chestnut-haired beauty and popular high school senior.
The all-American teen twosome will make GOP vice presidential pick and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a grandma at age 44 – just in time for Christmas.
Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described “f—in’ redneck,” have been dating a year, locals in Wasilla, Alaska, told the Daily News.
And the pregnancy? An open secret in the close-knit town of 9,780…
On his MySpace page, Johnston proudly declares: “I’m a f—in’ redneck.”
“I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing,” he says on the site.
He also warns that if anyone messes with him, “I’ll kick ass.”
The Web site, before it was removed, appeared not to have been accessed for a year.
On it, he admits to having a girlfriend.
On the part where it asks about children, he wrote, “I don’t want kids.”
Mark Okeson, the assistant principal at Wasilla High School, told the Chicago Tribune that Bristol started her junior year last fall, in the town where Sarah Palin grew up.
He said Bristol inexplicably transferred to an Anchorage high school midyear, leaving Levi behind.
“I never heard the story why,” he said.
[From NY Daily News]
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has responded to all of the controversy surrounding Bristol’s pregnancy. He repeated an earlier plea he made before the scandal broke that families of the candidates should not be smeared, and said “I think people’s families are off limits and people’s children are especially off limits.”
Some are saying that Sarah Palin should be focused on because she shows that abstinence-only education is ineffective. If anything this case shows that teen pregnancy is all too common, although that’s something that’s been painfully obvious for years. It’s a sensational story given her mother’s political aspirations and it’s hard not to pay attention to the pregnant 17 year-old daughter of a conservative Vice Presidental candidate. It’s like a movie of the week, and this surely isn’t the last we’ll hear about this young woman.
We have all been guilty of saying and doing stupid things as a teen.
That said, what a wake up call for both of the families.
He is a very handsome lad. I understand what Bristolsaw in him. I don’t understand why they did not use condoms. But maybe in such a small town with majority of the population conservative, buying condoms and contraceptives can be kinda hard. Hopefully they have leanrt their lesson that abstinence is nearly impossible with kids’ hormones raging.
Damn, he is good-looking!
People aren’t acctually going to leave this alone, but I’m glad Obama made his statement. This situation is for the Palin & Johnston families to deal with
which families daisy 424? and no, actually, I wasnt stupid and full of mistakes when it came to sex as a teen. my mom was the director of the family planning clinic in our small alaskan town of 4,000. she did sex-ed classes in our schools. and while it was embarrassing, you can bet I knew how to use a condom and get some birth control and I knew about STDs and I didnt mess up because I had facts. and im betting that this is the case for most teens who get sex ed. they mess up much less. saying something stupid, hell, yah, thats what teens do. the doing part, however, isnt the norm, especially when it comes to bringing another life into the world. messing up in that particular way is not the standard in this day and age. sorry. I wish people would stop normalizing this and apologizing for palin’s obvious inability to practice what she preaches. (except when it comes to making sure the baby is born).
handsome? he looks like a sweaty dope to me, like the rest of the valley trash. (dont believe me? sarah palin herself has worn a shirt saying “proud to be valley trash”) and remains proud to this day to be valley trash. anyone who describes themselves as a ‘f’ing redneck’ on his myspace page loses attractiveness points in my opinion. idiotic maleducated tool.
Please, no. Not another thread on this. How the hell did a thread about a 17yr old pregnant teenager give rise to 100+ heated posts yesterday? I really do not get this or understand why it qualifies as news. Her mother, yes. Her, a bit fat bored no.
Hes narrow eyed big chinned and mullet-haired and messy “bearded”- if you call that a beard- dumbas$.
Besides that– where is all the slamming on politicians’ sons? They surely make girls pregnant just as the politicians daughters get pregnant.
Also– this country has long used values as a substitue for ethics or reason.Teaching just abstinence does nothing to insitll a sense of ethical responsibility to others- ie, what I do to you has consequences on your self and life, and I cannot just think of myself, first andonly.
In no way or shape or form are teens today thinking like this; this society as a whole is ‘me first’, too. People are starved for affection and running on deficit; they are blinded by their own needs to others’ priceless beings and the others’ needs, too. Its a spiral- or more like a domino effect.
I dont see it all as raging hormones; thats only a part of it, but your brain decides what your going to do about it, how you are going to respond ot them. In every generation this has been a problem, but its certainly more rampant now– a sign that it doesnt juat have to be this way ‘because of biology’.
You can have desires, wants, and needs, but if you understand what you truly want and need you wont just run after everything good looking or fun-sounding or pain-numbing; youll look for the real value within the other and expect others to do the same for you, and be offended at anything less than that.
Handsome?? he looks like a criminal.. ewwwwwwwww….
The Republicans are so pathetic.. they judge people everyday and judge teenage mothers and now it has hit home.. they are poor excuses for human beings.. they really are.. plus she has no business being a VP that is the story it shouldnt be her daughter who made a terrible mistake.
we are discussing the daughter because the mother put her in the spotlight. Sarah Palin appears to be very ambitious maybe to the detriment of her own family. Even if she was a qualified VP choice, I would have to wonder about the character of a parent with children with all kinds of issues running for public office.
Hey, Kid Rock is my secret crush, so I clearly have a thing for sweaty dope-ish guys
People can practice ethical sex, too- it doesnt have to be all or nothing- again that avoids instilling responsibility and depth in the act of sex. Either you do it wrong or you dont do it at all? thats not teaching anything of “value” in my eyes.
Im not religious, by the by and Im not just thumping some tune I dont myself follow. Im a 25 yr old virgin but Im not opposed to mature sex that respects the value of both people involved and their needs. (just to head off any accustation that Im a hypocrite) Its tough, though, to find someone who thinks like that nowadays (hence still waiting and looking at 25) but its well worthit and no, its not difficult at all. Its no excuse to blame hormones; abstinence can be done- when voluntary, not so much when imposed.
This situation is unfortunate, but let’s face it, stuff happens, in families in every stratum of our society. Joe Scarborough said on Morning Joe (MSNBC) this morning that he knows of a similar situation in a Democrat family that has been left alone by the press and told the panelists off-camera who it was. I get that people feel they are catching Palin being a hypocrite or something here, but the threads here and on other sites like DailyKos really make Dems look mean.
There is no way to know whether Bristol used birth control or not. Clearly, she didn’t follow her mother’s advice on avoiding pre-marital sex, so why assume she followed any other advice? How laughable to think that she would flout the bigger rule (no sex before marriage) but carefully follow a smaller one (no condom). And what about the boy? I know that my kids can get condoms anywhere, why couldn’t he? At least one of my lovely children is the result of a birth-control failure, but maybe I’m the only person that ever happened to in the history of the world.
I am reading a lot of assumptions on these threads with not many facts to back them up.
It amazes me that people think that this shows abstinence only programs don’t work. Uhhhh …. there are no abstinence only programs IN Alaska. Palin has done nothing to change Alaska’s school system in this regard. There are still regular sex-ed classes there. Check it out and see for yourself. Those who use that as their excuse just don’t like Palin and want to throw mud – putting them in the same category of the crazy right-wingers who spread the rumor that Obama is a Muslim. Freaking idiots.
I feel for Bristol. She doesn’t deserve the horrible lies and rumors spread about her and her family. At least this is a true gossip site so I can get why you would write about. I don’t understand how the more news-oriented sites could carry the rumors that had no basis in fact.
Yeah, I feel really bad for Bristol too.
Well, growing up in the West of Holy Catholic Ireland in the 80s and 90s, you can be sure it was abstinence only that was being taught then too – not that we paid a blind bit of difference. (though to be fair, there was none of that, “sit with a phone book between a boy and a girl”, codology). It was more, “these are the female reproductive organs. They are probably very fertile. If you sleep together, you’re likely to get pregnant. So don’t.”
There was some misinformation between kids, but we still knew about The Pill and how it worked. Condoms were irrelevant as their sale was basically banned until 1992.
my point was it’s not just about how it’s taught, it’s the general attitude of the people in the school and area. I went to a mixed school in the country – very conservative area. Kids were messing around but there was only about 2-3 pregnancies per academic year. My cousin’s girls schools, and other girls schools in towns and cities were practically baby factories.
In my school there was a strong emphasis on boys and girls being friends. But nobody wanted to disappoint their families or potentially jepordise their future (poor area which recognised that education was the only way to success), so in general they didn’t.
I’m being long-winded, but basically my point is this: if I, nearly 20 years ago, knew about contraception in the back-of-beyond in Ireland – with all the information out there for teenagers now, they’ve no excuse. I’m not convinced that she got pregnant because they didn’t know it could happen to them – it’s because they assumed it wouldn’t.
ooh – one other point. This article says that the girl was transferred to another school half-way through the year.
So could it be that the (mythical) eight-month absence from school was not because of pregnancy or “mono”, but because she was transferred and the kids interviewed by the DailyKos or whomever actually didn’t know her or this fact?
I see so much ‘sexism’ in these comments. I watched Hillary Clinton’s character butchered by women in the past and now Sarah Palin’s.
It is not that long ago that women weren’t even able to vote and now we finally have women running for the top spots in the government. Isn’t this what we wanted as women?
You can do your best as a parent and your children are still going to chose their own path. You can’t control your kids 24/7.
Maybe her daughter did use birth control and it failed. No birth control is 100%. Maybe she didn’t use any – none of us will ever know. Her daughter made her own decision to have sex. There is nothing ANY parent can do to prevent this from happening.
It is interesting that none of the male candidates are ever criticised for their ability to parent…..and aren’t they just as responsible?
I think McCain knew this would get attention and thats what he wants, so shame on him for getting it to the detriment of a 17 yr old girl; and shame on Palin for not seeing thorugh his tactic!
Is anything more obvious; and it wouldnt matter who did it on what side such a tactic is just heartless.
Bros – you’re talking out your arse.
“messing up in that particular way is not the standard in this day and age. sorry. I wish people would stop normalizing this and apologizing for palin’s obvious inability to practice what she preaches.”
Really? Ever bothered to actually LOOK at the statistics on teen pregnancy? I posted this on the other thread, but since it’s still in moderation I’ll reiterate it here:
“Moreover, despite the language of epidemic, pregnancy rates among teenagers were not dramatically increasing. From the turn of the century until the end of World War II, birth rates among teenagers were reasonably stable at approximately 50 to 60 births per thousand women. Teen birth rates, like all American birth rates, increased dramatically in the period after World War II, doubling in the baby boom years to a peak of about 97 births per thousand teenaged women in 1957. Subsequently, teen birth rates declined, and by 1975 they had gone back down to their traditional levels, where, for the most part, they have stayed (see figure).”
Again – can you prove that she wasn’t using birth control? I’ve known more than just 1 or 2 women who’ve managed to get pregnant while on the pill or shot. Antibiotics can interfere with effectiveness, as well as numerous OTC medications.
You’re making assumptions you wouldn’t make if this wasn’t the child of a Republican. I’m sure that everyone who’s done drugs did it because their parents didn’t tell them not to? Or is it more likely they just chose not to listen?
Since teen pregnancy rates haven’t really changed that much over the last few decades – I guess we can also assume that giving kids condoms and sex ed doesn’t work too? Because that’s exactly the conclusion you came to in reverse. That because ONE kid of a person who advocates abstinence education is pregnant, it means that it’s a complete failure.
How many of those teens that are pregnant have parents that support sex ed and birth control for everyone? Does that mean that those policies have failed too?
meaning what scott? that most people don’t get pregnant while in their teens? because thats the point I was making. teen pregnancies are not the norm. they are in the minority. so when people excuse this and say, oh, everyone messes up when they’re a teenager, all teenagers make mistakes, I’m saying, no. most of them manage to not get pregnant. I said nothing about increasing rates of teen pregnancies over the years, and made a comment that back in the 60’s teen pregnancy was handled differently because times were different. and spare me the education on how birth control works you patronizing ass. ive been on birthcontrol for 11 years and never managed to get pregnant by misusing it, even though i have known people who have. its 99% effective when taken correctly, and that includes contingency plans for antibiotics and OTCs.
Bros, ;”…wasnt stupid and full of mistakes when it came to sex as a teen.”
Bravo to you for being a parent’s dream teenager.
Fact; ‘The frontal lobe, which continues to develop in humans until the age of about 20…’The frontal lobes are involved in:
motor function,problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgment, impulse control… social and sexual behavior.
‘The most recent data come from birth certificates nationwide. While the birth rate among 10-to-14-year-old girls continued to fall, the rate for those ages 15 to 19 increased from 40.5 per 1,000 girls to 41.9 births per 1,000 in 2006.‘
To date in 2008 as of today teen births 10,603,512.
The rates are rising, not declining as in the recent past.
Being from a older generation than you, I will obviously think differently. Not having a teenager yourself(?) I feel it’s unrealistic to say how you would react in the same situtation.
Unless, you duct tape your kid to a chair until they are 20, this can happen.
Try this;
http://www.cdc.gov:80/reproductivehealth/AdolescentReproHealth/index.htm
IMO, it is Bristol & Levi’s stupidity for getting pregnant, not the parents.
We obviously disagree, let’s leave it at that.:wink:
“ive been on birthcontrol for 11 years and never managed to get pregnant by misusing it, even though i have known people who have.”
So we’ve established that it is possible? Good, it’s a step in the right direction. Now, prove to me that you know she wasn’t using birth control. Because short of that, your entire argument is pointless.
You can’t prove that she didn’t ‘have the facts’, or that she wasn’t being responsible when it came to birth control. Condoms rip, interactions occur, and sometimes *gasp* you’re that 1% out of that ever parroted 99% effectiveness.
But you’re willing to draw the conclusion her pregnancy was the result of lack of information – despite the fact they teach sex ed in Alaska schools, regardless of Palin’s stance on it.
My point, if you were actually paying attention, is that using your exact logic – I could say that it was sex ed policies that failed. Acting like you can draw a conclusion about what caused her pregnancy short of her admitting how it happened is BS speculation and you know it.
CB; my response to bros went into spam due to a link I added. Could you please dig it out when you have a second,
thanks
I love Palin’s quote, ” soon they will realise the difficulties in raising children” Touche.
bros – “most of them manage to not get pregnant.
Just because they managed to not get pregnant does not mean they were either abstaining or using proper birth control. In many cases, I’d wager they were throwing caution to the wind (as teenagers do), and were just f’ing lucky the girls didn’t get knocked up.
I think Mairead’s argument is probably the most likely scenario with regard to most teen pregnancies. To wit: “[they didn’t get] pregnant because they didn’t know it could happen to them – it’s because they assumed it wouldn’t.”
Just my two cents, cobbled together from other intelligent folks’ two cents.
Scott: teen pregnancy rates are actually on the steady decline please see: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf
Sex ed and ready access to birth control do work. There is however always the accidental, the foolish and the determined.
Go to cdc.gov, look under reproductive health, they say teen pregnancy is on the rise. I had the stats, but my post went into spam.
its on the rise daisy, as more and more school districts decide to use abstinence only programs due to federal funding issues and as the federal government completly cut subsidies to clinics and universities to provide low cost birthcontrol and as certain pharmacies and pharmacists and health care providers are allowed to not prescribe birthcontrol or the morning after pill due to their religious beliefs (which should be a crime) and reduce access to these prophylactic methods, and as christian groups lobby the FDA to keep BC off store shelves even when it is one of the safest medications out there. thats the reason why its on the rise. there is also some bill in congress that wants to ensure that if a clinic or any health care providing place (including universities) receives federal funding of any kind, they cannot refuse to hire someone who doesnt want to give out certain kinds of birth control. as the bush administration, and conservatives in general, work tirelessly to reduce access to forms of birth control (even passing a bill in 2001 to not give aid to any overseas group that gave out condoms, BC pills, or performed abortions. the anti-sex ed, access-reducing policies of this administration have played their part in any increases in teenage pregnancies. unless you have a better explanation for it? aliens perhaps?
Bros – who exactly is being denied birth control? For crying out loud, you call me the most evil Republican in history, and you know where my wife gets her pills every month? Planned Parenthood. And yes, I have even gone down there myself to pick them up.
We use them because it’s actually cheaper for us to get it there than the pharmacy down the street. But the point is, people can get them (and cheaply too) if they want them.
Again, what relevance does this have to the argument? You’re still trying to imply that lack of information or ‘access’ as you’ve termed it, was the cause of this girl’s pregnancy. Anything beyond wild speculation to back that up?
Like others have said: if your kid gets busted with pot, does that mean you’ve never told them not to smoke it? This girl may very well have been entirely safe, and still managed to get pregnant. Am I sure of that? No. But I can guarantee you’re no more sure than I am.
She went to school in Alaska, no? Despite her mother being pro-abstinence, they teach sex ed in the schools there, no?
Well, then you could make the argument that govt. sponsored sex ed classes failed her just as much as her mother did, couldn’t you?
The hypocritical nature of a conservative mother with a pregnant teenage daughter cannot be ignored. Yes, we can’t control our children totally but I don’t think expecting a parent to teach his/her children certain obvious facts of life is asking too much–especially if they are claiming they can run the country!!!
The preacher does not live the sermon- like I said. The McCain camp is of course upset at the coverage this story is getting. I’d be upset too if the abstinence first last and always message was once more being beaten senseless by the cold fist of reality. Anyone else think Palin was foisted upon John McCain in a obvious ploy for angry Clinton voters? She just doesn’t fit McCain’s style of politics. This feels like a fix of some sort. That- and the GOP is shaking like a junkie to rape Alaska’s wilderness for those precious drops of oil.
Vdantev, that’s right.
Instead of holding McCain & his cronies to the standards *we* hold ourselves to, perhaps we should hold them to the arch-conservative standards they want to legislate.
Bros,
I am with you on the BC. My Mom was furious that I put my daughters on the pill, thinking I was condoning teen sex. I thought she was wrong and they would find a way do it on or off BC. Teens aren’t savvy enough to think it won’t happen to them. After all of the exhaustive advice and birth control, my teen did get pregnant.
IMO the pill however,should never be sold OTC, unlike condoms, it is a drug. That goes hand in hand with a pelvic exam and a PAP smear.
Sex ed should be taught in schools, sure I agree, but more important, parents should also be open with their kids and discuss options with them. It shouldn’t only be the government’s responsibility. People need to stop relying on the government and do crap for themselves.
I wonder, do home schooled kids learn sex ed from their parents?
daisy – spot on. But could I just expand on one thing. the Pill isn’t just a drug, it’s a mechanism that can be used to completely alter how some hormones, that control the body, work. It must be accompanied by a medical exam as it can cause problems with deep vein thrombosis or even can exacerbate thyroid problems. Plus homeopathic remedies like St. John’s Wort (perscription only in Ireland) can stop its effectiveness.
It’s still a fantastic service to have, even for period pain. But it’s only one of the safest medicines out there when prescribed properly.
Ahhhh vdantev – once again I think you’ve hit the nail on the head 😉
But I’m afraid I still think it’s pushing the limits on the definition of “hypcrocrisy” to accuse Sarah Palin. It was the daughter to decided to have intercourse before marriage and got pregnant because of it. It is only hypocrisy if it was Sarah herself that this happened to.
bros & scott – there’s one other variable you’ve both left out of your arguement: that while Alaska has the sex-ed classes, presumably parents have the right to refuse their children to attend it. We don’t know for definite if this happened.
Before anybody politically right of center says one word of defense for this sweet young pale pretty girl, can we hear a disclaimer?
Goes like this: We regret demonizing whole generations of young black unwed females [not pale nor considered pretty by white ethnocentric persons]. We regret stereotyping them as immoral dregs on public welfare rolls. We apologize for not recognizing that sexuality is a human trait, not a racial one, and that teen pregnancy happened in the best of homes back in the day before we did away with welfare and forced these unwed mothers into miminum wage jobs two and three bus rides away so their little not pale bastards could watch tv and play video games unsupervised.
But that’so 80s. Let us return to late 2008 when fair virgins of the almost-no-longer-majority race mysteriously get impregnated and became upright politcal footballs.
Something no one has brought up, Palin is Extremely ANTI abortion. Maybe this poor girl would choose not to have a baby as a teenager, but im sure her family gave her no choice. Why would anyone who would vote for Hilary who is very PRO CHOICE even consider voting for this woman? Just because they are both women does NOT mean they are the same.
if it doesnt happen in public schools daisy, it leaves a whole lot up to chance that the parents are going to do it, esp. when they themselves are lacking so much information that it would require massive education on some of the parent’s parts to be able to impart all the facts that a kid gets in a sex ed class led by a professional. sex ed is really a public health issue, not necessarily something dirty, private, hush hush embarrassing, and if we talk about it its going to encourage it.
scott, you have zero evidence she was using birth control or a condom so we are both approaching this blindly. im just saying it is more likely than not that this child, after being drilled with an abstinence only message, wasnt up to date on all methods available to not get pregnant. im also betting sarah took her kids out of class that day for sex ed class, as so many conservative parents in my alaskan high school and junior high did when it came time for that day.
you and your wife may have a hard time continuing you access to planned parenthood contraception scott, as the bush admin has proposed cutting 570 million for fiscal year 2009 in medicaid funding for planned parenthood.
the US has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world (1 in 3 under 20) (most likely because we have the worst access to contraception) and it has been on the rise since 2006, according to an article I just read. pretty lame.
Well, bravo to the McCain campaign for distracting us from the actual issue of his horrendous choice for running mate by the spectacle of the 17-year-old baby mamma. This was certainly a two-fer for the McCain campaign.
He gives a sop to the hard-core Christian community (who hates him)while having a “scandal” that creates sympathy for his choice while at the same time distracts people from looking into her actual record and background.
Here’s some background on Pallin:
Pallin has claimed she’s against earmarks, despite the fact that she took over $25 million of them when she was mayor of Wasilla. And despite getting that whopping amount of money (for a town of 6,000) she STILL managed to leave the town with over $20 million in debt.
How about the fact that she’s now hired a criminal defense attorney to represent her in the Troopergate investigation — an investigation that is a bi-partisan affair — so much for her squeaky-clean reputation as a reformer.
She has served all of 20 months as governor — in state whose entire population is right about 600,000. When Obama was in the Illinois Senate, he represented a larger constituency than Pallin does as governor. (The Chicago area alone is roughly 3,000,000. The whole state of Illinois has a population of about 12,000,000.)
When she was Mayor of Wasilla, she fired Librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who tried to prevent Pallin from censoring books on the library’s shelves.
She’s a hard-core, right-wing fundie who thinks that nuclear Armageddon is a-okay because it’ll bring about the 1,000 year reign of Jesus.
This is the most nakedly cynical political choice I’ve seen in my life. And I was around for Nixon.
Rotten kitty;’Palin isn’t the only vice presidential candidate who has sought earmarks. The Post cites a study showing that Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Obama’s running mate, co-sponsored $85.6 million in earmarks for 2008.’
Daisy – I don’t think RottenKitty was saying that accepting earmarks are bad – I think RottenKitty was saying that claiming to be against earmarks while having accepted them in your past is bad. There is a difference.
And are we 100% certain this kid is even actually pregnant?
I know, thanks Kolby 😉 I just wanted to be fair with the stats.
Speaking of home schooling, Bristol’s boyfriend, Levi, was home schooled.
Let’s just leave it at this- Sarah Palin is unqualified. She tried to fire a librarian for not agreeing to cenorship and she’s under investigation for trying to fire her ex brother in law. She was part of a group that believes that Alaska should seperate itself from the US.
Of course teens aren’t always going to make the best choices. However we’re talking about a woman who believes there should not be comprehensive sex education and who has a pregnant daughter. I don’t know how all it happened (birth control or not) but it makes it pretty clear that “just say no” isn’t the answer. Especally considering we are talking about a girl in a supportive two family home. Under tougher circumstances I’m guessing it would be even less effective.
Here are some specifics on the teen pregnancy rates.
“Data has debunked the abstinence-only approach as wishful thinking. Texas, for example, which strongly endorses abstinence-only, and demands parental consent before teenagers can get contraception, leads the nation in its rate of teen pregnancies, dropping only by 19 percent from 1991 to 2004 while the rest of country dropped by over 30 percent.” From MSNBC
@ Julie, I was thinking the same thing…has Sarah Palin restricted Bristol on what “she” wants to do? And why does she have to marry the guy ( that most likely does not want to marry this girl ) this woman is setting “ALL” women back 100 hundred years.I don’t want teen pregnancy to be o.k. just cause the vice president’s daughter is knocked up, where are our standards of excellence. This is not only about this young lady, but all of our children.
“this woman is setting “ALL” women back 100 hundred years”
‘The Supreme Court in 1973, in the case of Roe v. Wade, declared most existing state abortion laws unconstitutional’. 35 years ago.
The birth control pill was introduced in 1960. 48 years ago. I don’t understand your comment.
‘This is not only about this young lady, but all of our children.’
I agree, then educate your own children, don’t rely on the government to do that for you. 😉
I am not sure of the ages of people in this thread, but I’m thinking that I’m one of the people who have more recently been in high school, so that being said:
The sex-ed classes I got happened in 5th and 7th grade, and amounted to if you have sex, you will get AIDS and die, so don’t do it at all. EVER. I think that the bigger issue in this is that teenagers will have sex, so the should be educated about how to do it safely, and how and where to get birth control, and the stats on those methods. In all states if you deviate from the sex-ed portion of federally set standard for curriculums, you lose much needed federal funding, so public schools don’t teach safety, even if it is in the best interests of the future of teens.
I do not know how things are in Alaska, but when I lived in Wisconsin, the Republican legislature was pushing abstinence only sex-ed and not allowing any state institution to dispense bc to unmarried people, INCLUDING state universities. This tactic doesn’t solve anything…it makes unplanned pregnancy even more likely. I don’t think it’s really that big of an assumption to say that college student birth rates would have skyrocketed in WI.
My big worry with Palin is IF she makes it into the White House, how big will the push for limiting education about sex and safe sex practices be limited? What’s more of a question is how hard will she be about it seeing that her methods of teaching within her own house along the abstinence only line of thinking. She has proof that it doesn’t work, but probably wont be changing her mind. I don’t think that her teen is any more rebellious than the next when it comes to sex.
This should be that close to home hard hitting example of when you’ve been doing something wrong for Palin and people who support abstinence only sex-ed.
*edit*
Daisy –
It sucks to think this, but schools do need to do something because there are some people out there who got pregnant at a young age and do the bare minimum of parenting, leaving the rest up to the schools. Or, they are working so many hours that they aren’t home enough to take an interest in the kids.
Dangerous Minds or Lean on Me? Kids thrive when someone actually has interest in them. Those movies were based on REAL kids in REAL neighborhoods facing very real problems.
“this woman is setting “ALL” women back 100 hundred years”
‘The Supreme Court in 1973, in the case of Roe v. Wade, declared most existing state abortion laws unconstitutional’. 35 years ago.
The birth control pill was introduced in 1960. 48 years ago. I don’t understand your comment.
‘This is not only about this young lady, but all of our children.’
I agree, then educate your own children, don’t rely on the government to do that for you. 😉
Actually daisy I think the argument is more that Palin is riding on the coattails of the women BEFORE her that fought for equal rights and the power to vote in 1920. Not 100 years but pretty close.
I’m not going to get into the abortion argument but it should be pointed out that Palin is benefiting from the sweat and tears of the suffragettes while touting a platform that restricts or repeals rights already given to women.
It’s somewhat hypocritical to say the least.
@ daisy424, It’s hard to get birth control pills if your parents are imposing abstinence as your only option.And Yes, My husband and I will empower our daughters with all the knowledge they need and more to make intelligent decisions for themselves.
A lot of teens have made stupid mistakes but not every teens parent is trying to run as the VP on a presidential ticket.
I understand Baraks stance because he doesn’t want people attacking his daughters. I have to say though if you can’t manage your house then you shouldn’t try to co-manage an office that oversees the entire US if not the world. I’m not a republican so I could care less which train wreck they choose but lives are envolved in this. She needs to bow out and take care of her family with her husband.
stellapurdy & Missy, Thanks for the explanation. 😉 I re-read Missy’s comment a couple of times, I didn’t get what she meant.
No argument here, I am pro-choice.
daisy…. You have mail 😉
daisy, it’s all cool.
Speaking for myself, I feel that this whole situation is somewhat bizarre, kind of like a deer being caught in the headlights. If someone had told me a week ago that the presidential race would have take this path I would have thought someone had been smokin too much hooka. 😀
Going on now Diva 8)
Stella, I thought the same thing, I am blown away. I am glad that so many people are interested in the election, I hope the turn out is huge, thanks again 😉
@ daisy424, its all good. We will probably be disagreeing about another topic tommorrow.(smile)
Agree w/ Dante – tapping into those Alaskan oil field reserves has been a goal for the Republicans for many years.
For my money, Palin is a quintessential Republican – read: sociopath. If she practiced what the Republican party has been preaching for so many years about the woman’s place being in the home, she’d be at home tending to her own family instead of leaving her pregnant 17-year-old daughter and fragile infant son to the care of others. Absolute blatant and shameless hypocrisy.
I was a bit confused with the whole teen pregnancy rise/decline until I realized that according to all the stats teen pregnancy IS on the decline but the number of teens who get pregnant and choose to go full term and give birth is what’s on the rise. Two very different things.
Interesting.
OK… I read this evening that they’re bringing this Levi kid out on the campaign trail with her. WTF????
Tell me this isn’t self serving bullshit!
Respect their privacy, but “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I’M DRAGGING THE WHOLE CIRCUS ON THE ROAD!”
This is all so unbefreakinlievable.
Diva,
Everyone has pulled Palin apart for every move she has made. People were critical of her for NOT having him on the stage with her when McCain announced her as his running mate. Just admit it … she can’t win with you no matter what she does. You and the other Dems will continue to put her down regardless … and keep going after personal life. Please. It is why McCain will win in November. B/c this kind of dirty politics is what turns off “middle America” faster than anything else. Which party is saying that a woman should be staying home and taking care of her family? Which party is critical of a candidate who DARED to not attend an Ivy League school? This kind of shit is why it is so easy to paint the Dems as elitist who just don’t get it. This has gotten me so fired up about this ticket. I didn’t care for McCain … I’m a conservative who supported Fred Thompson. But seeing the hypocrisy of the Democrats – tearing a woman down b/c she isn’t at home tending to her children – wow. Unbelievable.
Chrissy – if you’d prefer we can concentrate instead on her political life, which reads like a dirty dimestore novel. Former member of the Alaskan secessionist movement? Check. Left extremely small town of which she used to be mayor $20 million in debt? Check. Sued the federal government to have polar bears removed from the endangered species list? Check. Current subject of an ethics violation investigation? Check. You should be thanking your lucky Republican stars that people are concentrating on her personal life right now as opposed to actually learning about how terrible a VP choice she is. It’s only a matter of time, though – it will all come out before long.
@ Chrissy
LOL from what I’m hearing already and after reading the post ahead of me no she’s not going to win with me. Nothing wrong with picking a female VP just pick one that is viable and credible for the job. The lady is already under investigation when McCain picked her now the flood gates are opened. I know the Republicans (atleast I hope) have women who could have filled this post.
(Chris Crocker)Leave Sarah Alooooooooooone!(/Chris Crocker)
Amazing how quick the Republicans are to cry foul when their front woman’s veneer is worn down by legitimate public scrutiny. Especially when you consider how vindictive and chauvinistic both parties were towards Hilary. I guess the Republicans never thought Hill would fight as hard, or make it as far as she did – and seeing her come within spitting distance of the White House, they decided to change their tune and ride the wave of female empowerment.
And now they are shocked that the public is holding Sarah to the same standards that their party preaches. They blame the Democrats for double standards and rampant misogyny, when it is clear Palin talks out of two sides of her mouth. Love, love, LOVE the irony.
For the record – if there wasn’t so much at stake, I’d love Hilary to run on the Independent ticket. It would give strength and validity to the third party our country desperately needs. But with Palin on the ticket and 3 Supreme Court seats to fill, it’s time for the Dems to unite and to go to the mattresses.
Funny, Chrissy… when she was on stage being introduced as McCains running partner I thought no one knew about the big secret, so HOW, may I ask, could she have been maligned for not having her daughter’s BOYFRIEND on stage with her???
Btw, I’m not a Democrat. But I’m no longer a Republican, either.