Concern, care for Palin?s teen should extend to all
By Cynthia Tucker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
What a relief!
For some reason, the pious social conservatives of the Republican Party did not denounce the 17-year-old daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Instead, they greeted the news of her pregnancy as evidence of the strong moral fiber of Palin and her husband, citing the fact that they have offered Bristol their comfort and support.
For a minute there, I feared that right wingers would attack the young lady as evidence of the moral failings of a liberal, anything-goes culture, or as proof that her parents had failed to provide a Christian upbringing that eschews sex outside marriage. After all, that?s what conservatives usually say when unmarried adolescent girls get pregnant.
When Jamie Lynn Spears? pregnancy was revealed, for example, Bill O?Reilly went after her parents.
?On the pinhead front, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The sister of Britney says she is shocked. I bet.
?Now most teens are pinheads in some ways. But here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her or even over Britney Spears. Look at the way she behaves,? O?Reilly declared.
When a caller to Rush Limbaugh?s radio show asked about Spears? parents, Limbaugh also rushed to blame them.
Caller: Would you tend to think that a family in this position, though, wouldn?t you think that there would be a more watchful eye as a parent to be watching over these kids so this doesn?t happen to them?
Limbaugh: I would certainly hope so, but it?s long past time for this to happen. The parents here are the culprits!
Of course, the Palins reside inside the magic circle of ultra-conservative approval, so, naturally, they are judged less harshly. But since the pious arm of the GOP has extended its compassion to Bristol and her parents, perhaps it will be moved to extend that grace to every other teenager who experiences a similar crisis and decides to rear her child and every other family who struggles to lend support.
But others in similar positions haven?t been shown the same mercy. Instead, they?ve been denounced as irresponsible, foolish, immoral. The mothers-to-be have been mocked, derided as the products of a modern culture of moral relativism. Perhaps that?s all behind us now. Perhaps we?re all willing to agree that children sometimes stray even when their parents work hard to keep them on a straight and narrow path.
The Alaska governor has said she believes in teaching abstinence-only programs, so it seems unlikely that Bristol was given much instruction about contraception.
I, too, believe adolescents, boys and girls, should remain chaste. But given the enormous pressure from popular culture ?- everything from adolescent-themed TV shows with sexually active characters to clothing lines that sexualize young girls ?- many teens are going to become sexually active no matter what their parents or teachers say.
That?s why it?s more practical to add instruction about contraceptives to wise counsel about abstaining from sex. More than 60 percent of high school seniors report having had sex at least once. It?s a bit naive to ignore that figure, to believe that your child would never indulge in such risky behavior.
And if teenagers conceive a child despite instruction on contraceptives, loving parents would certainly provide all the help they can. I?ve known many parents who set aside their extreme disappointment over a daughter?s pregnancy to help pay the bills and provide childcare while the young mother completes college, while also insisting the young parents step up to their responsibilities. In many of those cases, the child born to a teen mother fares well enough.
But what if the pregnant teenager doesn?t hail from a family with resources or parents who have health insurance? What if the baby?s parents don?t have a circle of friends and relatives to help with child care? Don?t those teenagers deserve compassion, too? Shouldn?t they have access to funds for daycare and low-cost health insurance?
Adolescents do dumb things, whether their parents are wealthy or middle-class or poor. So now that we?re feeling generous and forgiving on that subject, we ought to be able to extend our compassion to poor teens. They, too, should be given every chance to set their lives on the right track, even if it takes a government-provided safety net to help them get there.
> Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays
