Congratulations on the good news, Ms. Palin.
It’s good that you’ve decided to keep your “chin up on this one,” but I have to question your meaning. Are you implying that this pregnancy isn’t one that you intended? Are you saying that this pregnancy isn’t good news because it may be hard on you, your son, and your family? That does seem to be your meaning.
What was it? Did you drink too many wine coolers and forget that you had sex? Did your birth control fail? Did you simply not know how to use it because, maybe, you were given abstinence-only education instead of good, useful information?that taught you how to use the various birth control methods available to you? Were you (gasp) irresponsible?
You know you had this letter coming. Despite the fact that you “don’t want any lectures,” I have to remind you that you support your child by earning close to $300,000 a year lecturing others about abstinence. So brace yourself, Ms. Palin. Here’s the lecture, as well as the sympathy, that you didn’t want.
Advocates for Youth reminds us that:
“Accurate, balanced sex education ? including information about contraception and condoms ? is a basic human right of youth. Such education helps young people to reduce their risk of potentially negative outcomes, such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Such education can also help youth to enhance the quality of their relationships and to develop decision-making skills that will prove invaluable over life. This basic human right is also a core public health principle that receives strong endorsement from mainstream medical associations, public health and educational organizations, and ? most important ? parents.”
Yet, you’ve gone around the country preaching abstinence-only to teenagers, despite admitting six years ago that an expectation of teenagers to remain abstinent?was “not realistic.” You, along with the Candie’s Foundation, have denied the right to good, quality education about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and other reproductive health information to young people for years.
Who knows how many unintended pregnancies and cases of STDs have resulted from the work you, and others like you, have done? Now that you’ve once again been exposed as a hypocrite, can you say that?you feel good about any of this?
Do you feel I’m being too harsh? Let me remind you that:
“A long-awaited, federally-funded evaluation of four carefully selected abstinence-only education programs, published in April 2007, showed that youth enrolled in the programs were no more likely than those not in the programs to delay sexual initiation, to have fewer sexual partners, or to abstain entirely from sex” (and) “even though the teen birth rate in 2005 fell to 40.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 through 19, the lowest rate in 65 years,?the United States continues to have the highest teen birth rate of any of the world’s developed nations. Almost 750,000 teenage women become pregnant in the United States each year.”
I don’t apologize for my lecture.?Just like advocating for abstinence-only education, becoming an unwed mother for a second time, while also promoting programs that deny education on contraception and STDs to other young people, has consequences.
Despite the fact that you don’t want sympathy, I have to say that I do feel sorry for you. I’m sorry for you and other young people that you’ve denied that education while we shame you and call you “irresponsible.” You’re young; being irresponsible comes with the territory. It is we who are irresponsible in not changing policies that provide you with better education. In your case, however, many of us learned that irresponsibility from you because of your abstinence-only education work.
I hope you’ll remember that after the media storm about this pregnancy is over. I hope you’ll pass along the message that young people make mistakes, that they don’t always think ahead, and that what we need, what our entire education system needs, is good information made available to young people and not abstinence-only education.
Sincerely,
Carissa
