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Bristol Palin and the Failure of Abstinence

By W. James Antle, III on 3.12.09 @ 9:18PM

In response to Bonnie Erbe's blog entry on Bristol Palin, Maggie Gallagher has it just right: Whatever the merits of abstinence-only sex education -- it's an empirical question, but every study I've seen on the matter was conducted by an organization biased one way or the other, with predictable results -- it is fanciful to pretend that everyone who has an unintended pregnancy is ignorant of contraception. And the exploitation of this girl's mistakes as a stick with which to beat her mother is unseemly.

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ruth| 3.12.09 @ 9:34PM

You're right, of course, this isn't about Bristol; liberals are just using her as a weapon against her mother, Governor Palin. The left fears Sarah--and they should.

Thomas| 3.12.09 @ 9:38PM

There is a distinct lack of civilized behavior in this world. Here you have a young woman who, if she was not the daughter of a popular conservative politician, would be held up as another victim of teen sexuality and its unintended consequences b y liberals. But she is the daughter of a prominent conservative politician, so she is ridiculed, humiliated and persecuted with glee by the same "compassionate" liberals. Sad, very sad. This is a non-story, because it is one of thousands of such stories that are acted out every year. Give the young woman a break and move on.

Maiq| 3.12.09 @ 10:09PM

> The left fears Sarah--and they should.

Gag...

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 10:26PM

Truth hurts, libtard. If you don't fear Palin, why do you morons attack her daughter, besides the fact that you liberals are vicious?

Jim| 3.12.09 @ 10:28PM

All would be forgiven (and rewarded) if she were a minority.

CH| 3.12.09 @ 10:40PM

A minority or a liberal. Of course, if her mother were a liberal, the baby would have been aborted; nice and tidy like.

Ran| 3.12.09 @ 10:47PM

Maiq,
You've eloquently, monosyllabicly made ruth's point. [Who says liberals aren't geniuses?]

ruth,
Yeah, well, it's not much of a weapon, is it? Conservative Christians and Jews shrug and say that forgiveness is the issue... and it's not even Sarah. So what?

Liberals think they have a "gotcha" issue here, but that's because they have no fr*ckin' clue about conservatives values.

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 10:49PM

no objective spectator (or Spectator) blames Bristol and her family for the copulation explosion and its resulting pathologies.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 10:56PM

Good Lord, Alan, that is so gross! He's a baby boy, not a pathology!!

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 10:56PM

it's not just liberalism, it's futurism as well, a even more bat-brained version of liberalism. it mixes liberalism with .. other stuff, but it is like drinking rum mixed with gasoline: you wont get very drunk but you will get very sick.
if you see a copy of future shock or some other futurist book, please, throw it in the garbage.
if you come across a futurist

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 10:59PM

Maiq = Bob. Chicken.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:01PM

Rum and gasoline will get you very dead. Even if you are a futurist.

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 11:03PM

oh, no, Ruth, i meant the couple's splitting up is a result of the mentality of today. Sarah and her husband aren't like that but the younger set are more at risk from being exposed to 'do your own thing even if you break up'.
do you really think I would diss a baby?

narciso| 3.12.09 @ 11:03PM

That was a rather ridiculous article, because one, although she prefers abstinence, Gov. Palin, hasn't insisted on it, her school didn't have it in her curriculum, in fact, you could argue the opposite is true, re the school's curriculum, an argument it didn't occur to you to make.

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 11:04PM

yes.
very sick= very dead.

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 11:06PM

narciso
of course she didnt insist on it, this is 2009. you cant insist on decency anymore.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:07PM

Alan, you could have been joking; of course you NEVER joke around, right? Bristol is better off without that guy; he wasn't a keeper. Bristol needs to grow up--she will--with a kid on her hip. And she's only 18.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:09PM

Liberals have no decency--that was my point. They will do anything to win--even pretend to be 'tolerant'.

Ran| 3.12.09 @ 11:12PM

Alan, we are the futurists here. Statism is seeing it's last bubble form. Thatcher pointed out that eventually liberals and statists run out of someone else's money and the whole bubble collapses.

ruth: rum and gasoline is called "E-85". "Flex-fool" engines burn the garbage.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:15PM

Ran: Maybe Bristol isn't much of a weapon, but I think using her against her mother is very cruel. I couldn't even imagine being this heartless.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:17PM

Oh, I'm clueless. Alan posts in code--sometimes it's tough for me to break it. LOL

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 11:23PM

ruth,
sure we all joke around but the copulation explosion's social pathologies are no joke. my neighborhood has broken families with messy houses, and so do many, many neighborhoods.
futurists, Ran? i don't like that word in any context anymore. the morality of Thatcher and Reagan is fading. you think a non-welfare state will improve morality? 2023 will not be 1983.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:26PM

Ran, I appreciate your optimism--a lot. Willing to offer a guarantee with your fine words?

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:31PM

I understand what you're saying, Alan; I agree and it saddens me. In Bristol's case, though, she's better off taking care of her son and getting her life together. I don't think that guy loved Bristol enough to marry her--he seemed very immature; which is understandable. At least she didn't kill that adorable baby--he's so cute. She has a strong family, she's lucky.

Alan Brooks| 3.12.09 @ 11:35PM

it's not so much that posting in code, ruth, though i AM nonplussed.
just for instance, writing "you cant insist on decency in 2009" means i give up. if Palin were to insist on abstinence instruction then a list of her boyfriends from hi skool would appear on the web. the web means instantaneous political retaliation.

ruth| 3.12.09 @ 11:45PM

Alan, I know, but I still don't care. That's why I ridicule liberals so much, I don't respect them. I like Ran's attitude--sometimes I get so upset I get too emotional. Alan, never give in and never give up, there is still decency and goodness in this world.

Denis| 3.12.09 @ 11:49PM

Bristol will be just fine. Like so many single moms, she and her family will raise this little boy. Her life won't be the way she planned it, but life's mistakes are great teachers. She is learning valuable life lessons at a tender age.

Ran| 3.13.09 @ 12:06AM

Alan, ruth,
It's not so much that a non-welfare state wil improve morality, it's the other way around.

Here's the thing: Between abortion and family avoidance, liberals have been wiping-out their species here in the US. Conservatives - especially religious conservatives - of Christian and Jewish faiths have been having kids. There is a demographic tide rising to replace all those hippie boomers, and it ain't librul.

This rising tide is also of the culture that brought the greatest wealth to the greatest number of people in human history. Every liberal society afloat is sinking under it's declining family replacement and fiscal debt load. That includes America's liberal component. And nearly every culture looks around and asks "so, who's doing well, and how do we stack-up?"

Answer, it's US. We, conservative, religious, small-business, market-investing, freedom-loving, gun-totin', charity-donating religious types. The rest of the world looks and asks "Can we have that, too?" Well, yeah, why not? Try it. Statism sucks.

As the US flirts with statist quasi-fascist experiments, the market reflects the real value - frickin' HALF of what it had been, and THAT under a few really stupid market-limiting laws. The world looks, thinks "Huh. Maybe they had it right the first time. My GE stocks are in the tank, and hon, good thing we sold NY Times when we did."

Look: Iffff we can keep the Obama Democrats from enacting permanent amnesty, we stymie their main source of new Democrats. They are at their peak; this is their bubble they are standing atop. There are fewer and fewer new liberal babies in the ranks to replace them. They don't have the kids to run a liberal future, and they don't have enough of other peoples' money even if they did.

This is NOT going to be easy. The Hun are at our gates. It can, I think it will, get ugly from time to time. Our Constitution will take some serious dents, but that too has a future under restoration.

ruth, it's kids like yours and mine and RSM's who are coming along. You just know how we abhor God and Guns in our home! Heh. They are the future. God bless Bristol, too, her kid will be OK.

krishna| 3.13.09 @ 12:10AM

Everyone who puts themselves up for public office and makes pronouncements on morality MUST be re-measured with a reality stick whenever it is clear they ought to know better or are being hypocrites. Having a pregnant teen daughter should have been enough evidence for Sarah Palin to reconsider her hardline stances on education and contraception. Secondly, Bristol didnt say why she broke up with her fiancé (even under intense pressure to stay together), and no one has any business speculating - privacy applies. Anyway this should be evidence enough for you conservatives that single mom-hood occurs legitmately and the moms deserve real support.

Rich Rostrom| 3.13.09 @ 12:16AM

krishna: What "hard-line stance... on contraception"? Governor Palin supports contraception for couples who don't want to have children. Has for years. Very publicly.

ruth| 3.13.09 @ 12:19AM

Thanks, Ran. I've tried to live with decency, it's not enough to just talk--you've got to walk, otherwise your kids will blow you off. It's not always easy--but it's worth it.

Ran| 3.13.09 @ 12:19AM

"Having a pregnant teen daughter should have been enough evidence for Sarah Palin to reconsider her hardline stances on education and contraception."

Ifff you had done any - ANY - homework, krishna, you'd know that Palin is known in Alaska as a moderate on both of those issues. You know... Everyone who puts themselves up for public comment had better do some research before they make utter jack-asses of themselves. Got any other pearls of wisdom you'd care to enlighten us with?

If I said what I really think, Antle & Co. would ban me from TAS. Permanently.

narciso| 3.13.09 @ 12:22AM

Except you didn't see the 2006 KTUU governor's debate, so naturally you don't know what you're talking about, that's what I meant by insist. She's a Feminist for Life, it wasn't about blackmail. The unspoken detail was her enemies on the left, but
specially on the right, who set about in every way
possible to drive them apart, telling lies about the apprenticeship, arranging that bust around the time, the child was being born, in part to get back at her actions against trooper Wooten.

ruth| 3.13.09 @ 12:24AM

What pronouncements has Palin made regarding morality? What planet have you been living on? Liberals have trashed the privacy of Palin and her daughter--this should be evidence for you liberals that you are hypocrites.

ruth| 3.13.09 @ 12:27AM

That's what is so amazing about Palin--she cleaned up corruption in her own party. There is no one else like her. Certainly not Corruption King Obummer. Change we can believe in--what a sick joke.