Question for you. I am an African-American female inmy twenties. What would you guess is the leading causeof death for someone like me? A pretty morbid questionI know, but one worth asking. When most of us think ofsomeone dying young, we think of circumstances bothunexpected and beyond our control--an accident or inrare cases an unforeseen and unavoidable illness.
But what if I told you that the leading cause of deathamong young black women is AIDS?If you were unaware of this troubling statistic youwould not be alone. I remember watching thevice-presidential debate between candidates Cheney andEdwards in 2004 and listening as they both fumbledwhen confronted by moderator Gwen Ifill with aquestion about these numbers. I was reminded ofthis moment during the recent pseudo-controversysurrounding Sen. Barack Obama's comments regardingsexual education. During a townhall in Pennsylvania Sen. Obama said the following:
"When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the mostimportant prevention is education, which shouldinclude -- which should include abstinence educationand teaching the children -- teaching children, youknow, that sex is not something casual. But it shouldalso include -- it should also include other, youknow, information about contraception because, look,I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. Iam going to teach them first of all about values andmorals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want thempunished with a baby. I don't want them punished withan STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn't makesense to not give them information."
Conservatives immediately pounced on the comment,focusing on Obama's use of the word "punished". Whileit's arguable that his word choice could have beenmore thoughtful (after all one woman's punishment isanother woman's miracle) his overall message was righton target, but seemed to get lost in the ensuingbrouhaha.
Conservative stalwart Michelle Malkin, well known forher gift for subtlety and understatement (and yes I ambeing sarcastic), weighed in with a blog titled "Obamaand the punishment of unborn life".While this hysteria was not particularly surprising,it was still disappointing because yet again thepolitical chattering classes (of which I must nowconfess to being a part of) chose to ignore the realissue at hand in favor of the juicier, morecontroversial--and yes sexier--story, even though inthis case that story wasn't really there.
What is clear from Obama's full statement, which notall media outlets ran (surprise, surprise) is that hewas discussing pregnancy prevention not abortion. Thisis not to say that Obama is in line with those whooppose abortion rights, but it is to say that whilemany of us may disagree on the issue of abortion, mostof us can agree that the fewer women forced to makethe choice to have one, the better. That means, intheory at least, we should be able to find some commonground on issues such as contraception.
Obama in particular has good reason to worry--and notjust because of the AIDS rates that may face hisdaughters when they reach adulthood. According to theCenters for Disease Control 1 in 4 teen girls ages 14to 19 has one STD. That's nearly 3 million teens. But among black girlsthe numbers are staggering. Nearly half of all blackteen girls have at least one STD.
Proof that President Bush's abstinence only educationsolution has worked like a charm.
Perhaps Michelle Malkin and her conservative cohortsfound Obama's comments so disturbing because they areworried that he won't be able to adequately fill thecurrent president's oh-so impressive shoes on thisissue. Because with soaring AIDS rates and STDsplaguing our nation's children, clearly the Bushadministration has set the bar really high.
If we can agree on nothing else, we should be able toagree that our children deserve better. Haven't theybeen punished enough?