From Bodytalk blogger Josephine Marcotty…

The salient question about Gov. Sarah Palin’s pregnant 17-year-old daughter is not whether she should or shouldn’t have had an abortion. The salient question is why is she even pregnant in the first place.

In addition to being an unabashed member of the National Rifle Association and a supporter of the death penalty, Palin is an avid supporter of abstinence only sex education. That means her kids probably received little or no education about birth control — never mind emergency contraception.

Palin’s supporters shrug off the actual fact of the the girl’s pregnancy as “people make mistakes.” Those mistakes, however, have much bigger consequences if you’re a 17-year-old girl who doesn’t quite get how babies are made or how prevent them from being made.

Bristol Palin puts a face on the ample evidence, much of it provided through federally mandated research studies, that abstinence-only sex education does not work. Kids who just get the abstinence only message are just as likely to have sex. And they’re much more likely to get pregnant.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Guest Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.