I am annoyed. By the way, the picture to the left is from Harvard's website (giving credit where credit is due). But anyway, back to why I am annoyed.
Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, and the media jumps all over her. Now, this woman, who is anti-contraception, anti-choice, and is touted as having spectacular "family values," has a 17-year-old daughter who is five months pregnant, and all those Christian conservatives are valuing Ms. Palin for her daughter's choice of continuing with the pregnancy, getting married at 17, and praising the mother for having such a loving, supportive family. This is some kind of victory? Unplanned pregnancy, the triumph of ignorance about family planning and responsible sexuality, is a victory for family values?
How about the value of honesty and teaching your children about how to be responsible, giving them all of the options available to women and girls, and facing the reality of teen sex? Hopefully, this girl had the option of making the choice to continue the pregnancy for herself and isn't deciding to marry this guy because her mother is in politics. If she is, how wonderful that she has the option of doing so with the support of her family. How about all those other women out there who make the same choice because otherwise their families would disown them? How about those who then get trapped into a marriage? Or, how about the women who choose not to continue the pregnancy out of necessity also?
Being pro-choice means enabling women to make those choices. The choice of having sex, but being responsible. The choice of not continuing the pregnancy and not marrying the person who got you pregnant. How about that?
And one more thing before I go. Sarah Palin's governor survey by the Eagle Forum shows that she is against comprehensive sex education, in favor of abstinence-only education. My favorite part, though, about this survey, is this quote (from the LA Times)'"The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," Palin responded [to the survey], according to the [survey] site.' This woman doesn't even know what real sex-education includes.
When I attended public school in New Jersey, we had real sex education, which acknowledged the existence of teen sex drive. They told me time and time again, the only sure way NOT to get pregnant, or get an STD, is to NOT have sex. They also taught us about contraception, condoms, and how to be safe should we choose to have sex. That being said, they taught us that we should wait until we are old enough to handle the consequences of sex. And yes, all this from a COMPREHENSIVE SEX ED CURRICULUM. Abstience-only education is not education; it's fantasy. It doesn't teach teens to be responsible about sex if they do feel ready, and sex is a reality of life. We shouldn't be telling our kids incorrect things about choices they will be facing (like that condoms and contraception never work or any of the other lies they include). Instead, we should be honest. Our children deserve that.
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