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Juno From Juneau: A Video Report From The RNC Floor On Palin's Problem
The Republican National Committee's 2008 convention draft platform pledges to continue waging the right's war on sex education. The platform reads: "We support abstinence education and oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for abortion and contraception." These words seem ironic in light of revelations that the 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin, Bristol, was impregnated by her boyfriend, a self-described "fuckin' redneck" who will "kick ass" if anyone messes with him.
"Juno From Juneau," a video report from the floor of the Republican National Convention
Republican abstinence-only policies have been disastrous for teens across the country. A 2007 study by the Government Accountability Office found no evidence that the Bush administration's abstinence education programs, including those that have falsely claimed that AIDS can be transmitted through sweat and tears, have demonstrated any effectiveness. Could Bristol Palin have benefited from the sex education and contraceptives the GOP seeks to deny to public school students?
In my latest video, "Juno From Juneau," I probe the GOP reaction to this question on the floor of the Republican National Convention. Republican luminaries including Rep. Roy Blunt and John McCain's 20-something daughter, Meghan, tried to elude my line of questioning (Blunt complimented Barack Obama's handling of the matter, however). But members of the Alaska delegation were forthright about their enthusiasm for faith-based abstinence-only programs and restricting abortion even in cases of rape and incest. One delegate, Grace Van Diest, told me she is so fervent about abstinence education that her three daughters are only allowed to go on dates with their father, who lectures them on chastity and makes them wear "purity rings" to remind them of their vows to not have sex until marriage.
If Palin moves into the vice president's mansion, she will serve as McCain's liaison to the Christian right, and can be expected to promote the Bush administration's radical social policies with renewed vigor -- even though these policies, and the radical mentality behind them, may have harmed her own family.
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I find watching and listening to these people chilling. We MUST get religion OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT! It's becoming absurd.
When kids aren't taught the facts about sex they "learn" it by asking each other and relying on rumors. What's scary is the number of kids - and really children, I hear this from friends who teach MIDDLE school - who engage in oral sex to avoid pregnancy but know nothing about STD prevention. When there is no one teaching the truth, there are still millions learning from myths.
On another note, I'm tired of this belief that the fetus' "right" is greater than the mental, physical or emotional well-being of the mother. I think everyone can agree that a damaged mother is no good for her child, and asking a woman to carry to term - and sometimes even risk her life giving birth to - a baby she conceived through rape at gunpoint or by incestual abuse is just too much to do. Seriously, I think that if men could get pregnant we'd see a lot different legislation than we do. I doubt a man raped by a family member would want a daily reminder of that horror growing within him for nine months while he's trying to heal and forget.
I'm just sick of how the Republicans kept proclaiming in their convention speeches how important "liberty" and "freedom" are but want to take that away from women. All people should have the right to choose to become parents and raise children without government influence or regulation, regardless of the stage at which they make that choice, before
It's quite possible Bristol got pregnant with the hope to get away from the family. She may have resented having to care for her mother's baby too and felt she'd rather care for her own and get the heck out of there. She never looks happy to me.
Let me see.
Christians - would Jesus cut money to help unwed mothers?
Christians - would Jesus refuse condoms to children who are going to have sex and will contract sexually transmitted diseases?
Christians - would Jesus enjoy the speech that Sarah gave last night.
Want to be christians are a bunch of liars that hide behind a bible they don't understand.
To paraphrase my favorite bumper sticker, "Jesus was a liberal--so what's their point?"
Come on. Jesus was a community organizer. They don't like him. Boo community orgainizers. Boo Jesus! USA! USA! USA! DRILL! DRILL! DRILL!
The only abstinence-only program I support is from voting Republican.
With them having gov't. health insurance, it's the taxpayers paying the bill, same as medicaid.
And these people are going to run this country?
Better drag everyone you know to the polls in November to keep these nuts out of office.
These puritan beliefs being forced onthe united states is just wrong!
What a scary ticket. Wake me up and tell me this isn't so! Time to dust off my Quaker hat, and throw away my rubbers. Where's my moose and buggy?
She also (Mrs. Palin) cut monies for pregnant unwed mothers from the Alasakan budget as governor last year.
The Republican Right DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO
WHy do we let them get away with it?
Funny though how religions call for their faithful to procreate. 36 years of legal abortion and 40+ year of the pill and who is it that is procreating and who is not? We are getting dumber as a nation. Get used to it.
Perhaps the right approach would be to fool the masses to support our side.
What do you call conservative parents that teach abstinence?
Grandparents
Good one! And so very true.
An expanding population. While the lefties die out. Look what is happening in Europe.
I know. I almost feel obligated to crank out a few babies myself to raise in the ways of humanism just to counter this crap. I'm pretty busy already, but if Sarah Palin can raise 5 kids while pursuing a political career I guess I can handle it. My 17 year old daughter won't get pregnant, though, because she'll be using birth control.
And many of them are raising those grandkids.
They did this with the giddiness of High School kids.
What is their point? Do they think that Palin's daughter didn't understand how someone gets pregnant, and needed to be educated on this secret?
The headline should be "Girliemen Journalists Find Someone Their Own Size to Pick On - A Teenage Girl."
"What is their point? Do they think that Palin's daughter didn't understand how someone gets pregnant, and needed to be educated on this secret?"
Unless you think that she WANTED to get pregnant at 17 then the answer to this pretty much has to be yes. Obviously not just on how someone gets pregnant but how someone can have sex and NOT get pregnant. The point is (sorry to most people reading this I know I'm stating the obvious but Phil apparently doesn't get it) is that Palin's daughter is living proof that just telling kids "don't have sex" is not a very effective way to stop teen girls from getting pregnant when they are way too young to handle the responsibility. Unfortunately they are most fertile and hormone driven when they are least able to handle it (its a result of something Phil probably also don't understand called evolution). That is why kids need real sex education, which includes telling them to abstain but also how to have sex responsibly if they decide to.
Okay i hope that these same people who talk about protecting a child ......are the same people who step up ..and take in the hundred of thousand of minorities children who need a home to grow in ..and open they re doors to them.........Well we know that want happen because its not happening now...Its funny how they only see white women having an abortion..yet..the truth is ..poverty stricken minorities are using these services also ..and when this change happens and the stop abortion...and we have a major crisis on our from un wed mothers who are POOR.!! we will see how many of these people are going to want to open they re wallet for more govt spending on services to cover these unwanted preg. because that is what is going to happen ...for sure ....
Having been an unwed mother between the ages of 23 and 35, I can tell you what their reaction would be when asked to open their wallets, or pay extra taxes to help poor mothers...
"WE NEED WELFARE REFORM!!!"
Aarruughgh! I am so disgusted by this whole dating your parents and pledging your fidelity to them and wearing their rings. Ew!
I mean, honestly.... Paging Dr Freud.
It's funny how that purity promise only seemed to involve her daughters and not her son.
Somebody finally said it. Thank you.
Did she say how old her son was? Maybe he is only 8.
Did I hear right? Did Grace Von Geist say that her daughters each went on a date with their dad to talk about purity? A mother leaving it up to a father to teach a daughter about purity/sex??? Those children are home schooled and only go out with kids from their church group. What a formula for perpetuating fear and prejudice. I hope I heard wrong, otherwise my sympathy and prayers go out to the Van Geist daughters.
"One delegate, Grace Van Diest, told me she is so fervent about abstinence education that her three daughters are only allowed to go on dates with their father, who lectures them on chastity and makes them wear "purity rings" to remind them of their vows to not have sex until marriage."
Oh...
my...
gawd.
My parents and I were having a conversation recently and my dad mentioned the kind of girl he knew from his old neighborhood...extremely devout and raised in this extremely restrictive and heltered manner. Some of these girls, amazingly, were allowed to go off to college. And some attended the same college he did.
He saw first hand what happened to these girls once they left home. They went start raving mad...no self-imposed sense of control. It was like they had been imprisoned all their lives and they used their first opportunity away from home like a 4 year drunken shore leave.
This, I'm told, is one of the reasons that we were not raised with the "thou shalt not" mentality and were given solid advice about birth control, drinking and driving and exactly what to expect from our peers. Sex? Ok. But I was put in charge of the birth control since my dad warned me that it would be the furthest thing from the grab-assing guy's mind at the moment. Drinking? If you must...but know when to stop, make sure you can get a cab, and stick to drinks that taste like liquor (not Kool Aid) so that you remember you are drinking the hard stuff.
In other words, I was made responsible for managing my own chaos...at least once I was in my late teens. In my case it worked. In Bristol Palin's case...at least she might have avoided teen pregnancy.
that's right on the money! And here JM said in his speech tonight that Education was the number one "civil rights" issue of the day. Ok then put your money where your mouth is and start with Sex Ed and maybe we can nip a few epidemics in the bud that are a result of ignorance instead of knowledge.
I like your dad's advise on the kool-aid drinks. That was always my downfall, drinking the sweet drinks with the high invert sugar that's in those bottled mixers. I think I got sick from the high sugar as much as the alcohol...lol
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