“I think abstinence is, I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all,” new mother Bristol Palin told Greta Van Susteren in an interview on Fox News (video below). Bristol’s unwed, teenage pregnancy made headlines last year just as her mother, Gov. Sarah Palin, kicked off her vice presidential bid.
Samhita of Feministing.com writes, “I feel bad for her. [Bristol's] story was used by her family and the GOP to make an example of what is considered “responsible” behavior for a teen mom. Holding all that, she istelling the truth that abstinence is not realistic for young people, even if it should be what everyone strives for. Comprehensive sex-ed wouldn’t be this unrealistic.”
In Salon, Rebecca Traister dryly notes that all this honesty was too much for Fox News. As soon as Bristol said what everyone already knew, Sarah Palin hustled on stage to contradict her.
Jodi Jacobsen at RH Reality says it’s time for federal government to acknowledge what Bristol learned the hard way and axe federal funding for abstinence-only education.
Here’s wishing Bristol a happy National Condom Week.. Too bad the stimulus package won’t included expanded opportunities to cover birth control under Medicaid.At Mother Jones, Taylor Wiles notes that Obama cut $335 million for STD prevention, and that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) nixed $150 million to fund the Violence Against Women Act.
The bottom line is that when abstinence is the only choice for teens then unwed pregnancies do result. As Bristol now knows, abstinence is unrealistic.
It is OK to talk to kids about abstinence but it is also necessary that teens have access to condoms or birth control, if they become sexually active. The glue that holds all these elements together is sex ed, sex ed and more sex ed.
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