This morning Bristol Palin was on GMA promoting abstinence and all that crap. Here's a clip of the interview. I have no idea how much of it is actually covered in this clip because I can't sit through the thing a second time!
Now, I don't want to be one of those people that picks on Bristol Palin because quite frankly it'd be impossible for me to care any less that she has a kid. However, it does annoy me that she's now the spokes person for abstinence when it clearly didn't work for her!
Abstinence. What a stupid idea! In fact, to quote the young Palin herself, "Abstinence just isn't realistic." I have never understood why these ultra conservative christian groups continue to believe that kids are going to refrain from doing it. Doing it is fun, so, people do it. Instead of trying to scare people with disease and pregnancy, which clearly is a failing tactic, why not educate people and provide condoms and other information to help people make the right choice that will be effective for them. Promise Keepers and other groups like them want to believe that if they give kids condoms it gives them the green light to go have sex. I think this is an old line of thinking that drastically needs to be reconsidered. I think more accurately, if you don't give kids access to condoms, your putting them in the position to chance it. And let's be serious, a quick search on google, wikipedia or webMD will tell you pretty quickly that the actual ovulation cycle when a women can actually get pregnant is a very small window. If you don't let me have condoms, it seems like the odds are still on my side!
When watching the above interview this morning I couldn't help but wonder why an abstinence group would want Bristol Palin as their spokesperson? She clearly didn't live their message. Not only did she have sex, she has a kid! It was suggested that she's now the example of what can happen to you and your life from having unprotected sex. You can be thrust into the spotlight and become a paid (I am assuming) endorser of something you clearly don't believe in. You can be flown all over the country to make appearances, do interviews and give talks. You can be featured in national campaign commercials to try and show other teens just how bad your life can be from having unprotected sex.
Really? Is that the message? I'm always baffled that people believe that the major of kids can be detered from having sex by these silly scare tactics. Are there risks that go along with having sex, sure there are. And I'm all for the promotion of knowing those risks and then making a decisions based upon them. Just like I'm well aware of the risks of eating donuts for breakfast with the frequency that I do. They aren't good for me. They probably raise some sort of level of something bad. They're fried, they have tons of sugar and so with each bite I'm probably increasing my chance of getting diabetes and in general getting fat. But, they taste good and I work out so I feel like I minimize that risk. Hopefully anyone reading this can easily follow that analogy.
I'll leave you with this card from someecards.com, which, while funny, could have saved everybody a lot of headache!
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