Opinion Pieces Discuss Teen Pregnancy, Abortion Rights, Motherhood

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Abortion;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 11 Sep 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Several newspapers recently published opinion pieces about Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's views on abstinence-only education and abortion rights. Opinion pieces also discussed the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, and criticism Palin has faced for choosing to run for vice president as a working mother. Summaries appear below.

~ Barbara Amiel, Wall Street Journal: The "hypocrisy" that came from some feminists following the selection of Palin as Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) running mate was "breathtaking," Amiel, a columnist for the Canadian newsmagazine Macleans', writes in a Journal opinion piece. According to Amiel, "Only nanoseconds before" Palin was nominated for vice president by the Republicans, a "woman's right to have a career and children was a shibboleth of feminism." She adds, "One always knew that women with views that opposed those of official feminism were to be treated as non-women. To see it now out in the open was the real shocker." Amiel writes that reaction to the nomination of a "man with similar political views" would not have focused on Bristol Palin's pregnancy or the "inability to be a good parent if the job was landed" (Amiel, Wall Street Journal, 9/5).

~ Ellen Crosby, Washington Post: Although many people have praised Sarah Palin for not having an abortion after she learned that her infant son Trig would be born with Down syndrome, "how much better would it be if we could see past the hyper-toxic subject of abortion in this election and let Sarah and [her husband] Todd Palin's decision spotlight a topic far from our national consciousness: the needs of Americans with disabilities," Crosby, a novelist who has an autistic son, writes in a Post opinion piece. People with disabilities are "our country's most underserved, neglected and marginalized minority," Crosby writes, concluding that focusing on what disabled children "need" and what families go through "would surely add to the diversity of an election year that has already shattered barriers of race and gender" (Crosby, Washington Post, 9/5).

~ Charles Blow, New York Times: If there is a "shame" related to Bristol Palin's pregnancy it is the "national shame" of the failure of U.S. society to "accept and deal with the facts" of teenage sexual behavior, Times columnist Blow writes in an opinion piece. According to Blow, a 2001 UNICEF report found that the U.S. has the highest teen birth rate and is tied for the highest number of abortions of any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development "in spite of the fact that girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active." Blow writes that how often and safely teens will have sex is dependent upon how much support and knowledge they have, adding, "Crossing our fingers that they won't cross the line is not intelligent strategy." He adds, "We need to take some bold steps beyond the borders of our moralizing and discomfort and create a sex education infrastructure that actually acknowledges reality and protects our children from unwanted pregnancies, or worse" (Blow, New York Times, 9/6).

~ Janice Shaw Crouse, Washington Times: In order to reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy, it is "essential" for the U.S. to "[s]upport abstinence programs" and "[c]ontinue welfare reform" while encouraging "responsible adults" -- parents, teachers and religious leaders -- to "reach out with the truth" to teens who "lack parental involvement, faith and good friends in their everyday lives," Crouse, director and senior fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America, writes in a Times opinion piece. According to Crouse, "'Safe sex' messages mislead" teens, and the "best choice for all teens is to remain abstinent until marriage and to be faithful in marriage." Crouse concludes that it is "unfair that our most vulnerable teens are the ones who are not given the full truth" (Shaw Crouse, Washington Times, 9/7).

~ Barbara Curtis, Christian Science Monitor: "The skepticism about Plain's ability to juggle responsibilities has been punctuated with below-the-belt punches," Curtis, an author and blogger for MommyLife.net, writes in a Monitor opinion piece. Palin is a woman "who chooses sacrifice and challenge over expediency and convenience," Curtis writes, adding that Palin's consistency is a qualification that sets her apart from her peers. Curtis writes that her "heart goes out to her and to every mom who soldiers on in the face of such flak," adding that "motherhood under pressure has a way of helping women become greater than they started out to be" (Curtis, Christian Science Monitor, 9/5).

~ Michael Gerson, Washington Post: The "moment in the spotlight" for Palin's four-month-old son -- Trig, who has Down syndrome -- is a "milestone" in the movement for "compassion and inclusion" of people with special needs, Gerson columnist for the Post, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and President Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006 -- writes in an opinion piece. According to Gerson, "civil rights protections for people with Down syndrome have rapidly eroded over the past few decades" in part because some pregnant women and their partners who have been given prenatal diagnoses that their fetus has Down syndrome have reported that "genetic counselors and physicians emphasize the difficulties of raising a child with a disability and urge abortion." Gerson expresses support for legislation that would require physicians to provide parents with up-to-date information on the condition and state that prenatal testing is not always accurate, adding that "pro-choice radicalism" has "enabled" what is "properly called eugenic abortion" (Gerson, Washington Post, 9/10).

~ Dahlia Lithwick, Slate: Although Palin and McCain might want to "preserve the illusion that their daughters" get to decide what to do if they become pregnant, McCain wants to appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and the Republican Party platform "would bar these women from choosing to have an abortion, even if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest," Slate columnist Lithwick writes in an opinion piece. Lithwick writes that the decision to end a pregnancy is an important one but that the "matter of who gets to decide may be even more important. And that decision is increasingly being taken out of the hands of women and put into the hands of strangers." According to Lithwick, "Every time someone else in the decision-making chain gets the power to insert himself or herself and conscience between a woman and her fetus, the range of women's choices contracts" (Lithwick, Slate, 9/5).

~ Katha Pollitt, Chicago Tribune: McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate is a "blatant pander for the women's vote," but the "reality" is that Palin "opposes abortion for any reason" and "wants to use the magnificent freedom the women's movement has won for her" to "take away the freedom of every other woman in the country" to choose to have an abortion, Pollitt, columnist for the Nation, writes in a Tribune opinion piece. Pollitt writes that McCain is "gambling that women will vote their gender and not their interests," concluding that "pro-choice women will see through this gambit pretty fast. If not, we are really as dumb as [McCain] thinks we are" (Pollitt, Chicago Tribune, 9/8).

~ Cecile Richards, Washington Times: The recent "media hype" surrounding teen pregnancy has "glamorize[d] an issue that is anything but glamorous," Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes in a Times opinion piece. Sex education that is abstinence-based but also includes "medically accurate" information about contraception "works to reduce teen pregnancies" and curb the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, and has proven to be effective, Richards writes, adding that such comprehensive sex education "isn't what makes [teens] have or not have sex" but is "how they learn about prevention." Richards writes that there is "a lot at stake" for teens in the U.S., concluding, "The only way our children can be prepared is to be informed; this isn't about ideology, it's about the health and safety of our kids" (Richards, Washington Times, 9/7).

~ William Saletan, Slate: Although Palin has indicated that Bristol's pregnancy means that Bristol will be "shouldering the responsibilities of adulthood," Sarah Palin "refuses to treat a young woman in this position as an adult," Slate columnist Saletan writes in an opinion piece. Saletan discusses a parental consent law in Alaska that was supported by Palin and struck down by the state Supreme Court. Supporters of parental consent laws have argued that if "girls can't even get their ears pierced without parental approval, they certainly shouldn't be allowed to get something as serious as an abortion," but "that logic is backward" because the "more profoundly a decision affects a girl's future, the more vital it is that no one, even her parents, be authorized to veto it," Saletan writes, adding, "And nothing short of death alters a person's life more profoundly than bringing a child into the world" (Saletan, Slate, 9/5).

~ Jacob Weisberg, Newsweek: Bristol Palin's pregnancy highlights the fact that two "conservative social goals -- ending abortion and upholding the model of the nuclear family" -- have always been "in tension," Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, writes in a Newsweek opinion piece. Weisberg writes that he has "long expected the Republican Party to resolve this conflict in its social vision by moderating its stance on abortion," but "renewed evangelical dominance" of the party during President Bush's tenure has "pushed McCain in just the opposite direction" and explains why McCain "ended up with a wildly underqualified running mate." According to Weisberg, by "vaunting their pro-life agenda over everything else, conservatives are abandoning one of their most valuable insights that intact, two-parent families are best for children and the foundation of a healthy society" (Weisberg, Newsweek, 9/15).

~ Jonathan Zimmerman, San Francisco Chronicle: Poverty is the leading cause of teen pregnancy, Zimmerman, an instructor of history and education at New York University, writes in a Chronicle opinion piece, adding that nearly two-thirds of teenage mothers live below or at the poverty line at the time they give birth. Teen pregnancies do not "deprive our kids of life chances," Zimmerman writes, "Instead, kids who lack those chances are the ones who get pregnant." The "hype over teen pregnancy diverts us from the truly serious problem in American society, which is the growing poverty of teenagers themselves," he adds (Zimmerman, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/4).

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