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Eminentoes
Snooki on Shore Leave
Another glamorous out-of-wedlock pregnancy, brought to you by Republican denial of contraceptive access.
If you’ve never watched the show Jersey Shore, good for you. Yet if you’re not a viewer, then you are probably unaware that its petite, 24-year-old star, Nicole Elizabeth “Snooki” Polizzi, is pregnant. The father is believed to be one Jionni LaValle. And if you took that last sentence to mean that it is an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, good for you again.
If you’ve paid attention to the politics of recent weeks, you know that there can only be one reason why Snooki was unable to avoid pregnancy: She had a health insurance plan that denied her access to contraception.
At one time or another, one could still get access to care not covered by insurance by paying out of pocket for it. Indeed, it was reasonable to assume that if the care wasn’t too pricey, one should pay for it out of pocket.
Not anymore. Now, it is axiomatic that if it is not covered by insurance then it is the same as being denied access. Last week the Senate voted down an amendment by Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, that would allow any employer who had an objection to providing contraception through the insurance policy he or she offers his or her employees to opt out of the Obamacare regulation that forces them to offer such coverage.
In response, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said:
Republicans are trying to deny women access to health care services like contraception…. Republicans’ proposal to let any employer deny women access to contraceptives would not create a single job. Under Republicans’ proposal, over 170,000 women could lose access to contraception coverage and other health services in Nevada alone.
Since it is now clear that women are denied access to contraception unless they have insurance that covers it, it therefore follows that Snooki must have had deficient health coverage. Too bad for her that the Obamacare mandate hadn’t taken affect a few months earlier.
On a more serious note, we have another case of a celebrity glamorizing out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Plenty of research shows that young women who are poor are likely to remain poor if they get pregnant before they are married. Of course, out-of-wedlock pregnancy won’t impose much of a financial burden for someone who is as wealthy as Snooki. But for the many poor young women who might be inclined to follow her example, well, it’s probably a safe bet they won’t be signing multi-million dollar contracts for their own reality shows.
In the early 1990s the rate of out-of-wedlock births began to decline after rising precipitously for about three decades, eventually stabilizing at about one-third of all births by the end of the decade. Unfortunately, in the subsequent decade the rate was on the rise again such that by 2010 nearly 41 percent of all births were out-of-wedlock.
Wouldn’t it be great if someday we had loads of celebrities giving interviews about how they decided to wait until they were married before having children? It couldn’t hurt.
About the Author
David Hogberg is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Follow him on Twitter.
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Appleby| 3.6.12 @ 6:56AM
But the relentless drumbeat from birth to death is that you have to have sex every day or you die.
Lizard King| 3.6.12 @ 9:20AM
But the relentless drumbeat from mouth to anus and genitals you have to have the Federal Govt, and its self appointed nannies weigh in on and pay for or you die.
Doctor_X| 3.6.12 @ 7:08AM
Wow, I never knew that I needed Doctor approval to buy condoms and that the only way you can buy them is with health insurance!
I guess CVS will be in big trouble for selling condoms over the counter.
LibralsSuck| 3.6.12 @ 7:24AM
Damn... you know those free condoms you can get at ALL planned parenthood clinics, are just to damn expensive if you don't have health insurance. Poor girl, really, I mean, she couldn't be held responsible. Those damn republicans might have well spread her legs apart for the guy... On a more serious note, what we need to take from this is that for the betterment of humans every where, we need to stop these people from reproducing at ALL costs....
BSG| 3.7.12 @ 8:56AM
it all balances out, the evil Republicans force the women to have children but the benevolent Democrats provide tax payer funded abortions to end the terrible disease of pregnancy.
albert constantine jr.| 3.6.12 @ 9:32AM
The left mocked Dan Quayle when he broached this issue in 1992 with his remarks about the poor example promoted by the Murphy Brown TV show
In the place of Bush/Quayle, the nation voted in Clinton, who did more for bringing about unwed motherhood and promoting the need for contraception than any president since JFK.
albert constantine jr.| 3.6.12 @ 9:33AM
The left mocked Dan Quayle when he broached this issue in 1992 with his remarks about the poor example promoted by the Murphy Brown TV show
In the place of Bush/Quayle, the nation voted in Clinton, who did more for bringing about unwed motherhood and promoting the need for contraception than any president since JFK.
albert constantine jr.| 3.6.12 @ 9:34AM
This website sure has been difficult to post on lately.
Al Adab| 3.6.12 @ 2:41PM
Servers have been crazy for weeks. I'm starting to think the Obama campaign has hacked the system. The template keeps showing each others names and e-dresses.
Just another poor millionaire actress, Natalie Portman et al, who doesn;t know what makes babies or have the money to prevent it. We certainly need national health care to stop this epidemic of births.
Abortion for others; contraception for others, but as for me, the rules need not apply.
scotchieguy| 3.7.12 @ 3:58PM
I thought I was the only one. I hear TAS website got slammed with the rally for rush movement so great was the response. So, for once, I am glad the computer is slow.
LarryK| 3.6.12 @ 10:40AM
As Donald Trump said, "Snooki? Flies put down newspaper on her before landing."
junkyard infidel| 3.6.12 @ 11:43AM
a more appropriate title would have been "Snooki on Whore Leave" !
hardcard| 3.6.12 @ 1:02PM
It's not only difficult posting here, Breitbart is worse, I am unable to log in. I smell a soros !!!
Great Caesar's Ghost| 3.6.12 @ 2:27PM
Good God she is already the size of a cow. Can you imagine the immense proportions she will have swelled too when she is ready to pop her frog? Not good, not good. Pity the child.
Great Caesar's Ghost| 3.6.12 @ 2:27PM
Good God she is already the size of a cow. Can you imagine the immense proportions she will have swelled too when she is ready to pop her frog? Not good, not good. Pity the child.
Anommynous| 3.6.12 @ 2:32PM
Didn's Snooki support McCain over Obama, and didn't she make statements in opposition to Obama's tanning bed taxes? Not that I'm particularly eager to claim Snooki for "our" side, but the few statements I've heard her make in the realm of politics don't lead me to believe that she would support Obama's contraception mandate. Of course, I could very well be wrong, and admittedly I haven't paid much attention to Snooki as I've never watched an episode of her show in my life.
Seek| 3.6.12 @ 2:52PM
Test.
Reality| 3.6.12 @ 5:20PM
Liberal.
Mike Hawk| 3.6.12 @ 3:46PM
What's a Snooki?? Do you keep them for pets?? I think my nephew had a ferret he named Snooki.
Naturalborn Texicanette| 3.6.12 @ 6:22PM
Trash...just plain old stinking, dirty, nasty, disgusting trash.
Yes, these people have money, but their selfish, pointless, venal, immoral lifestyles are NOT something to be admired. I won't give these valueless forms of "entertainment" 3 seconds of my time.
Who in their right mind watches this utter drek anyway????
Get out and live your life and stop worshiping these sad excuses for human beings.
BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is so much more to life than than watching this Snooki person throw her life away on such a shallow way of life.....
POST American| 3.6.12 @ 10:34PM
--------------------FINAL WORD------------------------
---Sideshow DIS----tractions.
--------CUT to the chase
---------------GET to the source:
7 decades of, and, to some degree, nearing
a century of bottomlessly funded and
promoted, deeply engineered cultural
degradation in the name of 'RA'--dick--ALL'
change from the deadly sinister, TAX FREE
'benny violent' foundations and NGOs.
---Seems A.S. --never-- EVER has time or space
to talk about these over-awing 'bennie' factors.
"---'RA' ---who's 'RA'?"
Look it up dummy!
woodNfish| 3.6.12 @ 10:56PM
"there can only be one reason why Snooki was unable to avoid pregnancy: She had a health insurance plan that denied her access to contraception."
Oh, I'm so glad to hear that because I was thinking it is just because she is a slut.
Georgina| 3.7.12 @ 3:00AM
Maybe she just wanted a baby?
Some people actually like them
A Grin without a Cat| 3.6.12 @ 11:04PM
Snooki is a good name for a poodle.
Soljerblue| 3.6.12 @ 11:52PM
Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid.
Russell| 3.7.12 @ 12:16AM
Forget strangling the last king with the bowels of the last priest
Tying Snooki's tubes should be the nation's highest priority.
Georgina| 3.7.12 @ 2:59AM
Gosh, you make it sound as though getting married is a 'consummation devoutly to be wished' for women, and that we must then atomically change our names.
Many of us prefer to remain autonomous, while living happily with the man we love. It is not necessary that he put his stamp of ownership (his name) on us. Some men are happy and confident enough with independent women.
Ah yes, and contraception. It is an economically sound proposition to offer contraception to those who cannot afford it, and certainly cheaper than paying for the children they cannot afford.
Regardless of whether they are "out-of-wedlock" or not (this is the 21st. century!).
You people really don't like sex do you?
scotchieguy| 3.7.12 @ 4:01PM
It is an economically sound proposition to offer free gym shoes and healthclub memberships to those who cannot afford it, and certainly cheaper than paying for the strokes and heart attacks that come from inactivity.
scotchieguy| 3.7.12 @ 4:04PM
Don't like sex? Ha ha. We don't like sex with consequences, so we use our heads. It is really not that complicated. If you want to gurarantee you will remain in poverty, don't finish school, don't get a job, and have a kid out of wedlock. Then blame it on the guy.
John| 3.7.12 @ 8:33AM
Pretty stupid article, so you connect a dumb reality tv star getting knocked up to the recent birth control debate? Considering the jersery shore cast made millions (each) you can't blame lack of health care coverage on her getting prego. She easily could afford it, and if you didn't notice shes not the sharpest tool in the shed. Not taking sides on the birth control debate, but you can't say a tv star with a NY times 'best selling' book who is loaded couldn't afford birth control because of her insurance. Walmart has offered $7 montlhy birth control for years now...
Jacob F| 3.7.12 @ 9:25AM
What do you mean waiting for marriage? These people are too independent to ever get married for more than a few years. It's not that they just can't help but get knocked up when they're young and partying for a bit, it's that they party for decades and eventually one drunken night is going to lead to an unintended pregnancy, but never to a lifelong mate, no matter how long they're out on the circuit.
For some reason Americans are absolutely incapable of grasping that our problems are deeply moral ones. This is how we ended up giving condoms to starving poor people in third world countries while back at home our society is coming apart at the seams.
AVCurmudgeon| 3.12.12 @ 3:59AM
Typically, the liberals invert reality. Reid argues that "Republicans' proposal to let any employer deny women access to contraceptives would not create a single job" (say, what?) and makes it seem that the GOP wants to change to a system wherein employers get to choose what health care to offer.
Al Franken is starting a campaign to stop the "GOP plan" to have "bosses" decide what health care their employees get.
Um, here's the deal, guys: that's the way it already is. Health care is a product of the marketplace. Employers offer it in one form or another but nobody dictates what employers must offer. And ordinarily, if employees are dissatisfied with a health plan the employer will try to provide better in line with the economics of the situation.
Exactly why either of these clowns thinks that having the government supply health care will be an improvement is beyond imagination. After all, government is the crowd that gave us the mandatory CFL light bulb.
That said, what is at stake here is not a move from state-sponsored health care to private health care, but just the reverse. And the burden is on them to make the case that it will be better -- which as of this date they have failed to do.