What Was Bristol's Plan A?
It's hard to imagine that this is how Bristol Palin wanted her senior year of high school to turn out: She's five months pregnant, transferring to a new school away from all her friends, and the father of her baby has posted on his MySpace page that he's a "redneck" who is not interested in having kids.
Pregnancy, a baby, and now marriage probably weren't in her plans before prom. And yet, one night, like hundreds of thousands of other teen girls, she had unprotected sex with her boyfriend and took the risk of getting pregnant. But why? In an age when pregnancy information is a mouse-click away and condoms are available at every 7-11, why are so many teen girls still getting pregnant?
At Seventeen we hear all the time from girls who say that they just "ended up having sex" and weren't prepared with birth control. Or they say that they didn't insist on using condoms because they felt awkward and embarrassed. Instead of protecting themselves, they risk getting pregnant and risk a future that won't turn out the way they had planned.
In a Seventeen /The Candie's Foundation Teen Pregnancy Survey earlier this year a whopping 70% of girls say that having a plan for their future would help prevent unplanned pregnancy. So we ran a contest asking girls to share the dreams that were helping prevent their unplanned pregnancy--their Plan A.
The winning girls made videos about winning an academy award and being a boxer. But they might just as well have made it about one day being the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government.
No matter how you feel about her politics, Sarah Palin is a shining example of the potential and power of women. And in one hot moment with her boyfriend, her daughter gave away her power to make the decisions about how she wanted her future to play out.
It's our responsibility to feed teen girls' dreams for the future and encourage them to be proactive in their destiny so they stop letting unplanned pregnancy "just happen."
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The point here is that some people have a higher libido than do others. As a result, a certain percentage of teenagers will engage in unprotected sex, especially if they are raised in families where birth control is frowned upon. Rather than trying to stop teens from having sex, it might be better to provide them with ample information on the sorts of measures they should be taking in order to have safe, protected sex.
Stop it! . . .Stop it! . . . Stop it!. . . Please stop blaming teen girls for all these teen pregnancies.
It is ALWAYS THE MALE testosterone that cannot wait, or have enough freaking control, to buy or
wear protection.
Teen girls are not the ones who are hot and bothered all day long. Science says that males think about sex at a rate of 6 times per hour. . . . Females do not do that. . . If the world wants to stop teen pregnancies, then the world better START THINKING ABOUT CONTROLLING MALE BEHAVIOR.
You seem to be forgetting that there is this word in the English language..
God forbid a male be expected to act rationally.
devil's advocate here.
let's just say she does say no, but it turns out not to be her choice, and sex happens anyway.
according to palin, that girl's decision about what to do with her body, and the clump of cells now taking up residence in it, is no longer her's or her family's, but a matter of policy.
Just where is this "science"? The figure used to be every 7 seconds, but Snopes.com couldn't find the source:
http://www
It is true that Bristol is not all that different from many other girls who make the unfortunate choice to have unprotected sex. I guess in one sense she's lucky that it ended with "just a pregnancy" instead of a disease like herpes or HIV, syphilis, etc. If she was at risk for being impregnated, she was at risk for the full spectrum of STDs that are floating around out there.
Just imagine, for a moment, if her mother and father had been responsible enough to actually teach her about birth control and the proper way to use it. Perhaps she would have insisted that her now baby-daddy wear a condom. Perhaps she would have refused to allow him to penetrate her. Perhaps she would have had more ammunition with which to make an informed, responsible decision.
No person is ready for marriage or parenthood at 17 years of age. It is just sad that Bristol was so unprepared for the real world, and now she will have to pay the price for the rest of her life. Sure, she may marry this guy, but will it last? Since most heterosexual marriages end in divorce, including those where both partners are madly in love with one another and no child is involved, what possible chance does Bristol have with a self-described "redneck" who really isn't ready or willing to be a father?
Sarah Palin's views on adolescent sexuality are as outdated as the story of Adam and Eve she
wants to have forced down the throats of every public elementary school student in America.
Yes, I am a Roman-Catholic and I believe that the Lord created the entire universe, I just
think it took him a bit longer than seven days to do so.
But did God or the devil invent condoms?
Not that it matters, most evangelicals don't believe in them anyway.
You probably don't know any evangelicals.
Bristol Palin is not the one running. Yes, she's a minor, and therefore her situation does reflect on Sarah Palin's judgement, but there are more effective, more respectable, and more honest grounds for questioning Governor Palin's qualifications. Attacking the 17-year-old victim can only create sympathy.
But how her daughter ended up based on her moronic abstinence stance shows you just exactly what you are going to get with her in office. Bad decisions that prove not to work and forced down the American people's throats.
No is attacking the 17 year old although they should with the drinking photos and and the fact that she knowingly understood what the consequences of sleeping with someone are.
I just think that her mother is a walking and talking disaster with backwards thinking. And her failures in her family as well as her state should frighten people that she could one day be second in line to the presidency.
I am amazed and distressed about how so many people assume they know the circumstances of this young woman getting pregnant. My strong assumption is that critics have no idea whether this young woman fell victim to an abstinance policy, or whether she (and her boyfriend) simply fell victim to not being prepared in a moment of temptation -- as so many others among us have. I can assure you that daughters of some of the parents who believe in sex education and providing of birth control devices to teens still managed to have unprotected sex and become pregnant. Is this an indictment of their parents' pro-sex education and pro-distribution of birth-control device stands? Of course not. Rather, this is an example -- one of so many -- of a young man and young woman doing something that most of us wish they had not done. Hypocritical, aren't we?
What you have said here is exactly the point. The backwards thinking of Sara Palin is what caused the pregnancy & would extend to the US. These programs would extend the George Bush direction. A Mcain/Palin presidency would also place an even more extreme Supreme court than the one we have now.
It is reasonable to argue that Palin didnt spend enough time with her daughter, and now her daughter is having to marry someone because of unplanned pregnancy. You could argue Palin was a bad parent. And so on.
George H.W. Bush became president and look how he raised junior.
You could argue that Palin is a bad parent, but that's not the office she's running for.
I don't think you read the post.
Welcome to the McCain campaign distraction strategy. I haven't heard a lot about ISSUES since Palin was selected. A lot about family and values and this 17 year old girl, but the economy? The war? Foreign policy? Renewable energy, and energy independence? Immigration? NAFTA? Russia's new aggression?
Not a peep.
"shining example of the potential and power of women?" Here is a woman who would turn back the clock on the advances made by women. She would promote a system that takes the right of choice from women, end's child care assistance programs and ends assistance for college funding. In addition, she promotes allowing Americans unfettered access to guns, including machine guns. Oh yes, she is female so somehow her appointment should make women happy. Thank God that American women are not foolish enough to believe this nonsense.
Sarah Palin is a shining example of the potential and power of women? Really? Why? Palin certainly isn't an advocate for women's rights. And her daughter is immaterial to this election, except that, with your help, she is distracting us from the fact that the McCain0-Palin team has no understanding of what this country needs and no real plan for its future except a lot of platitudes. You should be focusing on the fact that, especially for women, this team, in spite of the fact it includes one, is a nightmare.
"Sarah Palin is a shining example of the potential and power of women? Really? Why? Palin certainly isn't an advocate for women's rights."
It is this lack of objectivity that should be a real concern for democrats. The core group would vote for a yellow dog if it was registered democrat. But the independents are moved by a real family with real everyday problems and a mother who has risen to become Governor.
Geniuses like this really don't get it. I think they are telling the truth. They really don't.
are you a woman?
Objectivity? There is no objectivity when it comes to my reproductive organs. I am very SUBJECTIVE about what happens to it.
I wonder how men would feel if the government had the right to make vasectomies illegal?
Sarah Palin is pro life. If McCain is elected and kicks the bucket, this will be a president who has the power to promote her beliefs by electing judges who share her pro life beliefs. The more pro life judges in the supreme court, the stronger the chances are of Roe v Wade is reversed.
Ooh, but have you considered the rewards with a VP mom?
Liberal hypocrites should clean up the trash in their own back yard before they worry about the neighbor's. Liberals are so concerned about this one girl, while thousands of daughters of Democrats have unplanned babies and thousands more abort their mistakes. If one of Obama's daughters got pregnant at 17, I'll bet he tells her to go abort it.
Gee, let's all decide what Obama's ten year old daughter might do in seven years, and what he might tell her in seven years.
Liberals are concerned with far more than one young girl's pregnancy, RadCon. That's why they support responsible family planning, intelligent sex ed, prenatal care through Planned Parenthood. Oh, but wait--conservatives have shut down funding for Planned Parenthood, shut down funding for anything but abstinence-only sex ed and threatened life and livelihood of medical practitioners who offer termination as ONE of a number of solutions.
The world isn't as binary as you'd like to paint it. Everything isn't good/bad, yes/no, right/wrong, one/zero. I'll bet there are more unplanned pregnancies - of every duration - among young girls who have zero education because their parents are NIMBSs (not-in-my
I agree that Bristol's pregnancy should be off-limits, as should the rest of Gov. Palin's family life. But when you (a party, a movement, an individual) hold yourself out to be the righteous flagbearer of family values, you have to be prepared for people to stop and stare at the huge flaws in that facade when they appear.
Actually, I bet he asks her, "what do you want to do?", and then supports HER decision, even if he doesn't agree.
That is the liberal approach, after all. Pro choice.
Our only concern for this one girl is that her mother threw her to the wolves. Our real concern was the naivete and carelessness of John McCain in picking Sarah Palin to be one step away from the Presidency.
Please, RadCon, try to get the point. Everyone has sympathy for Sarah Palin's daughter. No one except you is discussing abortion. The point is that this Stone Age family is a prime example of why abstinence as the only solution, as promoted both politically and in their family life by the parents, doesn't work. Statistics have shown this time and time again. Bristol Palin is just another statistic that maybe, possibly, wouldn't have happened if her parents had educated her about the alternatives available in her life. Now Sarah Palin wants to shove that lifestyle down our throats and have government intrude in the private lives of its citizens. She wants to ban books she doesn't deem appropriate and fire anyone who doesn't agree with her. Her husband is a seccessionist and her religion promotes a One World fundamentalist Christian agenda instead of democracy. No thanks. If I want to live like that I can go live in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. I really feel bad about Bristol being made a pawn for politics, in public. What in the big wide world is John McCain thinking?
The daughter is only proof that Palin's theories on abstinence are impractical.
Actually, it shows the consequences of a lack of abstinence in a very graphic way.
Aww give the young girl a break...as someone else said, she took a wrong turn on the way to Abstinence class and ended up in the Creativiy room.
The rapturist right believes that this sort of thing is a "blessing" from God! This all part of God's "strange" way.
Chalk this up to yet another failure of the rightwing ideaology - teaching abstince only in public schools.
My question for Sarah Palin is "How well did that work out for you, honey?"
Note the survey that showed that knowing about birth control and disease prevention did not prevent using protection. Kids know more than their parents, often. What they need is parental guidance and not old coach teaching it or a twenty something right out of college.
Palin is a shing example to women of how NOT to behave in public service. She has taken on all the male aggressiveness of her counterparts without retaining any of the compassion for life and prosperity that women can and should champion.
By living the lie that 'abstinance only' is an effective form of birth control, she has doomed her daughter to a life she would not have normally chosen.
By choosing the exploitation of Alaska's black wealth and simultaneosly ignoring the devestating effects that drilling and pipelines have on the environment, she has ignored her responsibility to preserve this planet for her grandchildren.
She is a very poor role model, indeed.
Can you please show me the Palin quote that is for abstnence only. most of us on the right teach abstinence first, and that if you do give in to your desires, then use protection. We however believe that it is the parents responsibility, nit the governments to teach sex education to our children.
See
http://www
"Palin’s Position: Would replace sex-ed programs with abstinence-only programs (source)."
Regrettably, the source is the Eagle Forum Alaska, which has taken down the cited page about her 2006 gubernatorial run. Quoting it:
"Q: Will you support funding for abstinence
SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."
A definable future and peer pressure make a huge difference - not, I think, in whether a normal teen's sexuality is acted upon, but whether pregnancy is a) risked and b) carried to term. I went to a well-regarded boarding school and I cannot recall anyone publicly pregnant. People did leave the school on occasion - "homesick" or whatever. I assume some were pregnant and having the baby. On the one hand, it was probably logistically more difficult to have sex due to faculty-supervised single-sex dorms, lack of ability to drive, etc. This probably cut down the frequency. But there were places to go. On the other hand, there was contraceptive education (in the biology curriculum), a student health service that would not tell your parents, and most importantl
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