Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Trickle-down stupidity?


OK, boys and girls, listen carefully. Unwed mother Bristol Palin has some advice for you on how to avoid getting in the "family way." Of course, it's abstinence, which worked so well for her. Bristol gave an interview to ABC's "Good Morning America" in which she said that she wishes she had waited to have sex. I'll bet she does. She also offered this startling bit of information: "I just think that abstinence is the only way you can effectively, 100 percent foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy." Hold the presses. Do you mean that if you don't do the horizontal hokey-pokey, you can't get pregnant? This should solve everything in the area of teen pregnancy, right? Wrong! Even Bristol's baby daddy, who looked like a deer in the headlights when he was paraded around the Republican National Convention and learned that he would be getting married, knows better than that. Levi Johnston, now estranged from Bristol, said abstinence is "not realistic." Smart boy, at least in that regard. "Abstinence is a great idea," Johnston said in an interview with "CBS This Morning. "But I also think you need to enforce, you know, condoms and birth control and other things like that to have safe sex. I don't just think telling young kids, ‘You can’t have sex,’ it's not going to work." Perhaps he didn't say it eloquently, but Johnston is right on the money. We can talk all we want about abstinence being the best bet for our children. It is. There's really no denying that. But the reality, which some find to be an inconvenient truth, is that unmarried young people have been having sex with one another since the dawn of time, and they will continue to do so in large numbers as long as humans walk the Earth. What we have to do, as responsible people, is find the best ways of helping these children protect themselves from pregnancy and disease, and if they foul up, we should make sure that they have access to the morning-after pill. No, it shouldn't be used as a routine birth-control measure, but if a couple of kids screw up, no pun intended, the rest of their lives should not be ruined (and many are undeniably altered for the worse by an unintended pregnancy) when a simple trip to the drugstore could prevent it. Telling kids to just say no to sex is about as effective as telling the ground not to get wet when it rains. If Bristol Palin, a girl from a stable, well-to-do, loving, two-parent family who no doubt had her mother in her ear preaching abstinence for years, goes ahead and has unprotected sex, what are the odds that a girl from a poor, single-parent home with little hope for the future is going to buck the odds and keep her drawers on? We need to help our kids, and ourselves, by offering them more than empty words.

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22 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You have to wonder if Bristol's appearance at this abstinence extravaganza was her idea or her mom's?

I'm betting Keith Olbermann is going to have fun with his on MSNBC tonight.

--Brad Hundt

May 6, 2009 at 2:54 PM  
Blogger Dawn Keller said...

When I first heard Bristol Palin's comments after her baby was born, I found them confusing. But then I wrote the teen pregnancy story here and found through my reporting that a good many teens feel the same way. "I love my baby, but wish I would have waited."
If it's confusing for us as adults, think how confusing it must be for the teens living through it.

May 6, 2009 at 3:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well if you don't do it, you won't get pregnant. She's correct. And it is possible to NOT do it. Difficult? Hell, yeah. My problem with abstinence-only education is that no one counsels the kids on how to resist the natural urges other than to pray about it -- no one feels like counseling them over the angst they feel without crunching them over the head with morality. It's not easy to be moral. If it were, churches would be out of business.

I resisted sex with my girlfriend for almost two years, until I was 20, because I was deathly afraid of going to hell if we did it. My Girlfriend, who as then 18, finally said, "Would God send us to hell because we love each other?" I thought not, and I still think that. Your mileage may vary.

Just don't have sex? Just don't mention the elephant in the living room.

May 6, 2009 at 3:55 PM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

And then you talk to other people who had great sex as a teen... and used protection... and I wish I would have started a year or two earlier!

May 6, 2009 at 3:55 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

A later version of the Palin story says that Bristol told Fox News in February that abstinence is “not realistic at all.” Looks like she's mastered the flip-flop and has a real future in politics.

May 6, 2009 at 4:59 PM  
Blogger Harry Funk said...

Can't wait to watch Jon Stewart get his hands on this story!

May 6, 2009 at 5:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't understand your obsession with the Palins. Do you masterbate to Sarah Palin?

May 7, 2009 at 12:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

With Obama making moves all over the economy, the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan meaning that the Taliban might get nukes and thousands of Americans out of work, the media is focusing on the Palin family.
The last comment was too funny btw

May 7, 2009 at 4:53 AM  
Blogger Cheryl Chamberlain said...

obsession with the Palins? (looks through past posts as she must be missing something)

anyway, abstinence only teaching is about effective as praying the gay away.

maybe in their political minds, this was all a political plot so that Bristol could speak from an "experienced" side of the topic, which she obviously and miserably failed. "i wish i would have been abstinent!!"

May 7, 2009 at 5:00 AM  
Blogger Brant said...

For heaven's sake, no one should be blaming the media for covering the Bristol Palin event. Her own mother pushed her and the young man into the media spotlight at the Republican convention, and it's not like reporters cornered her in some alley and demanded that she speak about sex education and abstinence. The kid voluntarily sought the spotlight at this event. Also, her mother is a leading candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination, and teen pregnancy is a major issue in the country so that also makes it newsworthy. And to the one poster, hey, one could do worse than the Palin ladies for fantasy purposes.

May 7, 2009 at 6:26 AM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

One could do a hell of a lot better, too... especially after knowing what she sounds like...

Freakin' Marge Guunderson... "Ooooh yeah, ya knew? Yer a big fella eh? Bite my ears you betcha! Awe heck, the rubber broke dontcha knew? Gosh dernit, smack my tuckus! That's what I'm talkin aboot."

May 7, 2009 at 8:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Personally I think Sarah Palin is a boner killer.

May 7, 2009 at 9:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Palin has achance to win in 2012, I'm moving to Canada on Jan. 1, 2013.

May 7, 2009 at 9:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

She can see Canada from her house also..
Brant you are right about the Palin ladies and some of us don't mind the voice, it is different and quirky.

May 7, 2009 at 10:37 AM  
Blogger PRIguy said...

A young couple about to get married asked their doctor what the best method of birth control is. The doctor said, "Eat an apple." The couple was overjoyed at such a simple, inexpensive option to pills, condoms and the like. Intrigued, the woman said, "An apple? That's it? Do we eat it before or after sex?" The doctor said, "Instead of."

I remember when I found out my 14-year-old son was sexually active. I said, "I don't necessarily approve, but you're not going to stop so at least use a condom and protect yourself. Child support comes every month for 18 long, long years."

A thought: what is it about the Palin women that makes them want to use their offspring as props for whatever stance they're taking at the time?

May 7, 2009 at 3:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You never made a case. Why should the morning after pill be available? To protect them from disease?

May 9, 2009 at 2:24 AM  
Blogger Brant said...

Because it can prevent a pregnancy. Pretty simple. And it's not a question of whether it should be available. It already is. The only question is at what age a person should be able to buy it over the counter.

May 9, 2009 at 8:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nope...It does nothing to prevent pregnancy it only ends it. Try again. You made no case for it, only used the topic to rip the Palins. What is the argument for ending a life on a whim and giving the morning after pill to underage girls? You still haven't made a case for it.

May 9, 2009 at 9:32 AM  
Blogger Brant said...

Here's my case: It is already lawful to end a pregnancy. This is just another way of doing it. And the person taking the pill really has no way of knowing whether or not she has been impregnated. She's just taking a reasonable precaution to make sure it doesn't go forward. If you're against ending any pregnancies, that's your right to believe that. But it's the law of the land to allow it. I'm wondering if you would give the morning-after pill to victims of rape or incest. If a life is a life is a life, I assume you'd rather a rape victim or a 13-year-old who had sex with her uncle be forced to carry that pregnancy to term, and that's just sickening to me. I'd much rather that women, and especially young girls, who are ill equipped to raise a child and are just adding to society's burden would instead take a pill the day after an unprotected sexual encounter. And, you're wrong about me using the morning-after pill debate as a way to bash the Palins. My main focus was to bash the Palins. The morning-after pill just came up in the course of the blog post.

May 9, 2009 at 9:55 AM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

Women who are on "the pill" probably have had a few "chemical abortions" as well...

Nobody is going to change your mind... so how about this:

If you aren't a big fan of abortions, don't get one.

May 9, 2009 at 1:33 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"If you aren't a big fan of abortions, don't get one."

What would you do if you were a woman and was raped? I pose this question considering your statement quoted above.

May 12, 2009 at 2:20 PM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

If I were a woman and was raped? And pregnant? I'd get an abortion... I am all in favor of abortion being legal and available...

May 12, 2009 at 2:31 PM  

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