The Smug Baldy Speaks » abstinence http://www.smugbaldy.com It's hard to think when you're not used to it. Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:25:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 2008 paulus@smugbaldy.com (The Smug Baldy) paulus@smugbaldy.com (The Smug Baldy) Society & Culture 1440 Science,Skepticism,Culture,Politics,Humor,Psychics The Smug Baldy Speaks This is the podcast for those of you who who like their commentary to be barely entertaining, and your host to be only marginally informative. At least he has positive self regard, and a handy robot overlord as a segment announcer. The Smug Baldy The Smug Baldy paulus@smugbaldy.com No no http://www.smugbaldy.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/smugbaldy_speaks_image_small.png The Smug Baldy Speaks http://www.smugbaldy.com 144 144 Bristol Palin: GOP Abstinence Ambassador? http://www.smugbaldy.com/2009/05/08/bristol-palin-gop-abstinence-ambassador/ http://www.smugbaldy.com/2009/05/08/bristol-palin-gop-abstinence-ambassador/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 17:55:01 +0000 Smug Baldy http://www.smugbaldy.com/?p=365 bristol-nsm
Back during the 2008 election, these t-shirts came out, and lots of people were put in a weird spot. After all, it’s generally inappropriate to make fun of unwed pregnant teens, and in political campaigns a candidate’s children are usually off limits. But time passed, and the strange set of social contradictions that surrounded Sarah Palin and her family fell from the public eye following the GOP defeat.

Now, Bristol Palin is back, doing the talk show circuit with her new baby in tow. She’s still and unwed teen mother, and that’s nothing to praise or condemn. Teen pregnancy is certainly an important social issue. Bristol is speaking out as a teen mother about the importance of the GOP solution to teen pregnancy: abstinence.

Never mind the fact that, as public health and education policy, abstinence-only education is a demonstrable failure. Teens that participate in such programs are sexually active at about the same rates as teens who participate in sex education classes that also include information about condom use. The problems appear when you examine pregnancy and STD rates among teens in abstinence only programs. Many teens in these programs don’t abstain, and they don’t use condoms effectively either. This actually puts them at increased risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Just like Bristol Palin, who gave birth on Dec 29, 2008 at the age of 18.

Regardless of the epic failure of abstinence-only education, I have to question the wisdom of selecting someone who rejected abstinence as the GOP Abstinence Ambassador. No – Bristol Palin isn’t the right person to tout the benefits of abstinence since she has no verified abstinence experience.

That would be equivalent to selecting this person as the GOP Fashion and Fitness Ambassador:

fashion-ambassador

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