Bristol Palin on Abstinence, Tabloids

This is one brave woman. You couldn't get me on national tv talking about this stuff when I was 18.

There's video at the link, but here's a partial transcript courtesy of Ed:

GRETA: I don’t want to pry too personally, but obviously contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were lazy about or not interested in, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it, or –

BRISTOL: No, I don’t want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is like … I don’t know how to put it, like … the main … Everyone should be abstinent, but it’s not realistic at all.

GRETA: Why?

BRISTOL: Because — I don’t want to get into detail about it.

GRETA: [crosstalk] Just big picture, not about you –

BRISTOL: Because it’s more and more accepted.

I think the "it" in that last sentence is meant to be "extramarital sex."

Here's Ed:

Of course, acceptance is why many people want abstinence taught. The entire idea is to push back against the acceptance of sexual activity among those who are ill-equipped to handle the emotional, health, and financial consequences of sexual activity. That doesn’t mean that we don’t teach about contraception as well — it always amazes me when people consider the two mutually exclusive — but that explaining that only abstinence gives one complete protection against pregnancy and STDs in ways that condoms do not, as well as the risks of exploitation.

I'm not certain that Bristol meant her mention of abstinence to imply anything about contraception, especially since her mom self-reports as "pro-contraceptives." But Ed can rest easy on the teaching abstinence or teaching abstinence and contraceptives issue. Obama is infamously in favor of "comprehensive sex education" including both abstinence and contraceptive education.

And Debbie Schlussel from the comments was too good to pass up:

Not only does she not believe in abstinence, but she doesn’t believe in marriage either, apparently, since it’s been almost a year since she learned she was pregnant and almost two months since she had the kid. And yet, she’s still a baby mama. Hilarious that people call her mother–who enabled this baby mamahood and continues to put a roof over it–the “conservative of the year.” Simply hilarious. Not only has America become socialist under Obama, but conservatives have abandoned any sense of family values. In this one family–the new template for America’s conservative movement–you have a Mr. Mom, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, and opposition to abstinence teaching. Awesome.

Discuss.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:05 AM

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