Barak Obama, in noting that he was born to an 18-year-old mother, asked his supporters to “back off” of criticisms that Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter is pregnant. Obama pointed instead at McCain’s impulsive choice of a running mate with only 20 months of experience as governor of a state with a relatively small population.
But since Sarah Palin was expressly chosen to appeal to an Evangelical Christian constituency which largely believes in denying the right to young women to decide for themselves when to obtain an abortion, and which promotes sexual abstinence as the only acceptable sex education program, this is an issue that is not going to go away. The issues of Choice and Sex Education have now stuck to Palin like superglue.
The governor’s family, particularly her daughter, deserves absolute privacy in this matter. Nationally, however, the case highlights the high incidence of teenage pregnancies in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of three girls becomes pregnant before the age of 20, and 80% of those pregnancies are unintended. As a comparison, the teenage pregnancy rate in the U.S is ten times that in the Netherlands.
Palin, as a mom, should not have to answer to anyone about how her family has chosen to act. But Palin, as a fundamentalist politician who wants to force others to share her social and ethical values around sex and pregnancy, should not get a free pass. She is going to have to answer questions about the failure of the abstinence programs she prescribes.
In respecting Palin’s right to pursue her own family’s values around a surprise pregnancy – and I hope the nation will – we must also recognize that this is a right that every family and all women deserve.
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