Thursday, September 04, 2008
Teenage mothers need our empathy
Read Shanna's blog
Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
Shanna Flowers
Recent columns
At last, conservatives have shown compassion.
The pregnancy of Bristol Palin has forced Republicans to publicly concede that "life happens."
Rather than unleash a torrent of condemnation on the unmarried teen daughter of GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, conservatives have rallied around the family and praised them for their support of 17-year-old Bristol.
"It's a private family matter. Life happens in families," John McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt told the Los Angeles Times.
Palin, who calls herself a pro-life feminist, and her husband Todd released a statement Monday: "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."
Life does happen, but the same empathy that has been poured out to the Palins has been withheld from others in similar circumstances.
Regardless of background, children can wander off the course their parents had hoped for them. Some fall onto the difficult path of teen pregnancy and parenthood.
For that, they don't deserve to be vilified.
Conservatives haven't always viewed teen pregnancy with the understanding and forgiving spirit showered on Bristol, who the Palins said plans to marry her baby's father. For years, their condemning reaction has blamed unmarried pregnant girls with a lack of morality, having bad parents or both.
When teen star Jamie Lynn Spears revealed she was pregnant, conservative pundits Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh teed off on Spears' parents.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenage pregnancies rose by 3 percent between 2005 and 2006, the first increase since 1991.
Part of the problem is conservative Republicans who push an abstinence-only agenda regarding sex education. During her 2006 gubernatorial race in Alaska, Palin noted that "explicit sex-ed programs" would not get her support.
Her daughter's premarital sex should be a clarion call that young people need to be armed with more than good intentions toward their sexual health and knowledge.
We don't like to admit it, but many young people are sexually active. Abstinence is a message they should hear and practice, but they also need to know about contraception.
We cannot afford to condone teen pregnancy. The societal costs are too high. But we also can't afford to worsen that problem through finger-pointing and playing the blame game.
Let's be glad social conservatives in the Republican Party finally seem to be realizing that.
