TheBanyanTree: <POLITICAL> Re: Obama Reigns It In: “My mother was 18”

[Julie Anna Teague]

Quoting LaLinda <twigLLet at gmail.com>:

> I’m so glad that Obama spoke up over the weekend. The negative
> reactions to a young woman’s pregnancy seemed odd, to me, since I
> don’t think I know of anyone whose family hasn’t been launched by a
> young woman, my own mother being 18 and her mother in law, my
> grandmother, being just 17. I could post a litany, but why be
> redundant?

I'm glad he spoke up, as well, saying that people's children should be 
"off limits" in a political campaign.  I couldn't agree more.  And as 
all the studies you included show, premarital sex happens and has 
for...ever.  New adults will be new adults.  My own mother was 17 and 
unmarried when she got pregnant with me.  She's not sorry she has me, 
by any means, but she would rather have not had to get married and have 
a baby at 17. It's a tough row to hoe the whole way--I've seen it first 
hand. Contraception was simply not available back then.  But it is now, 
and I can't understand why our government, pushed by conservative 
religious groups, continues to spend millions on abstinence-only based 
programs in our schools, and not help those 17 year olds, who will do 
what they have done for millenia, get access to contraception.

"If these abstinence programs discuss contraception, it is mainly 
within the context of its limitations, its failure rates, its side 
effects, and its possible contribution to increased sexual risk 
taking." (Institute of Medicine. (1995).  The Best Intentions:  
Unintended Pregnancy and Well-being of Children and Families. 
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.)

I can't understand why some religious groups overlook "sins" when it is 
convenient for them to do so, and still push to legislate punishments 
and limitations for other "sins", such has homosexuality and teen 
pregnancies among poor minorities.  If you come from a family that can 
help support a pregnant teen and her baby, the "sin" is overlooked, 
taken care of.  It happens to everyone.  We should rally around and 
support them.  And we should.  But if you are a teen who happens to be 
a poor minority, you were wrong to get pregnant, you are a social ill, 
and you'd better get out and get a job and find somewhere to leave your 
baby because your AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, (now 
called TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) will be cut 
off after a certain number of months.  For them, it is nothing but 
social stigma and struggle.  For gays, another "sin" we try to 
legislate against, it is nothing but social stigma and struggle.

I'll all for helping pregnant teens.  I'm all for accepting human 
beings in all their beautiful humanness.  I'm not for legislating away 
health information that will help our children and their children get a 
better start in their lives.  I'm all for no one being labeled with a 
big red "A".  I'm also for no one being labeled with a big read "H" and 
not being allowed their human rights because they are sinners in the 
eyes of...someone.  This is why I think Sarah Palin's daughter became 
an issue in the press--because her mother has pushed to make her 
religious beliefs public policy, only to become an example of where 
that policy fails our youth.  Maybe this will be an eye-opening 
experience for her.  I hope so, because what failed her kid is failing 
for other people's kids, and they might not have the kind of family 
support that this girl is getting.  And if she or McCain had a gay son 
who wanted to get married, we might actually get somewhere.

Julie