:: gia’s blog ::

Anyone who’s been following me on Twitter or reading my Twitter-based status updates on Facebook may have realised I’ve been following the soap opera-like goings-on in the US Republican party.

Short recap: first there were was a story on Daily Kos, which has since been deleted, that claimed that Sarah Palin’s 4-month-old baby boy, Trig, was actually her grandson.

• They talked about how she only announced her pregnancy when she was 7 months gone
• how no one she worked with had realised she was pregnant
• they linked to images and video of her at 7-8 months pregnant and she didn’t *look* 7-8 months pregnant
• they explained how her daughter Bristol had been taken out of school for 5 months ‘with a bad case of mono’ (in American high schools that’s often a euphemism for ‘pregnant’)
• how when Sarah Palin went into labor a month early and was leaking amniotic fluid, she got on a plane, took an 8 hour flight, then a 45 minute car journey from Texas to Alaska- did I mention the baby has Downe’s Syndrome?- had the baby on a Friday, then was back at work Monday morning. To pretty much everyone who’d had a baby, this seemed either pretty unlikely or an example of SUPREMELY bad judgment on the part of Sarah Palin for all kinds of reasons…
• they put 2 and 2 together and got a ‘Desperate Housewives’-style plot which made me remember why I love teh internets so much

Then someone from Sarah Palin’s hometown (pop. 9,000) pops up in the comments on a blog and says, ‘Trig is Sarah Palin’s son, but her 17 year old daughter is pregnant NOW.’ (see comments by ‘Sue Williams’). Then comes the announcement that, yes, Bristol Palin, 17 years old, unmarried, is, indeed, pregnant and her boyfriend describes himself as a “f - - -in’ redneck” and that he “[doesn’t] want kids”. Doh!

So far so Jerry Springer. Or, as I read yesterday, so far so “Beverly Hillbillies in igloos”.

The Republicans are saying this is ‘nobody’s business but the Palins’‘. Barack Obama has said that families are off-limits. Republican bloggers and commenters are talking about how despicable and low Democrat bloggers and commenters are by even talking about this. Some Democrat bloggers and commenters are agreeing with them.

What, I ask you, would be happening on Fox News right now if one of Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughters was 17 and this was happening? A black, unmarried, teenage, pregnant girl. What would the Republicans be saying about that? Think they’d be saying ‘it’s a private family matter’? No. They wouldn’t at all. They’d be judging and condemning Barack and Michelle. They’d be questioning their parenting skills. They’d be going on about how this is exactly what America *doesn’t* need in the White House. And you know it.

I think Bristol Palin’s unwed, teenage pregnancy IS an issue that does need to be talked about. Here’s why:

Sarah Palin is anti-choice when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. She has said that she wouldn’t support the decision to have an abortion even if her own daughter was raped. Charmingly, she apparently said this when her own daughter was 14 years old. Just some facts as an aside: only about one third of rapes are reported to the police in the US; 1 in 6 American women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape; 21.6% of those were younger than 12; 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 18; rape-related pregnancy occurs “with significant frequency”. more here and here. Remember, Sarah Palin said she would force her 14 year old child to have a baby if she got pregnant after being raped.

Also, Sarah Palin does not support sex-education in schools and instead supports ‘abstinence-until-marriage education’. Yea. We all would prefer it if kids waiting until they were older to have sex, but honestly, when has that EVER happened?! To expect someone’s mind and decision-making ability to compete with or control their hormones, especially when they are a teenager is foolish beyond belief. What we might hope for and reality are often very opposed to one another. And apart from the whole pregnancy issue, we should be actively advocating condom use for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (1-in-4 sexually active teenagers in the States gets an STD).

In the Republicans’ announcement of Bristol’s pregnancy, Sarah Palin said, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.” I’m glad for them. I honestly am.

BUT…

I’m wondering exactly what choice Bristol had in the matter? Her mother has already made is clear that she wouldn’t allow her daughter to get an abortion even if she were raped, so if, as a kid, you are brought up knowing that you have no options, how exactly do you get to make a “decision”? Now, I’m not, at all, suggesting that Bristol wanted to have an abortion and her parents forbade her from having one. I’m talking in a deeper sense here.

Bristol Palin is a child. Does anyone seriously think that she would be strong and independent enough to make any important decision without her parents’ 100% approval? Of course not. All Bristol Palin wants right now is the support, care and love of her parents. And the only way she will get that is if she drops out of school, has a baby and gets married. At 17. That is not a “decision” at all. And it’s certainly not the decision I would like forced upon *my* pregnant teenage daughter by the government.

Sarah Palin has already said that “parents know better than government what is best for their children” when it comes to education and yet thinks that the government knows better than ALL of its citizens- both adults and minors- when it comes to their own private sex lives, reproduction, psychology and medical treatment. Sarah Palin thinks the government should force ALL women to give birth no matter what.

The fact is that not every teenage girl who ‘makes a mistake’ and finds herself pregnant has parents who will support her “decision” - whatever that decision may be. Not every pregnant teenage girl has a mother who is the governor of a state. Not every pregnant teenage girl has parents who are still married and still, by all accounts and purposes, happily so. Not every pregnant teenage girl has parents who earn a lot of money and can financially support them. Not every pregnant teenage girl has an extended family who will emotionally support them. Not every pregnant teenage girl has been dating her partner for 3 years (as I’ve read Bristol has). Not every pregnant teenage girl has a partner who agrees to marry her. Not every pregnant teenage girl has consented to the sexual act which got her pregnant. Not every pregnant teenage girl lives in a place where you can earn enough to live when you’ve had to cut your education short, before you’ve got a high school degree.

Things are different for pregnant teenage girls who are living with a poor single parent, in a city, and whose partner refuses to take responsibility for the pregnancy. It’s estimated that 30% of American girls become pregnant before the age of 20 and teenage pregnancies cost billions of dollars annually as around 60% of pregnant teenage girls stop their education and live on welfare.

Taking choices away from everyone based on what you would or have done in your own personal life, for your own personal reasons, is WRONG. Forcing anyone to give birth is as horrendous as forcing anyone to have an abortion. It should be “a private family matter”.

My pro-choice stance is just that- I support the right of women to choose. They should be able to choose whether they have sex or not. They should choose whether they take birth control or not. They should choose whether they go through with a pregnancy or not. This does NOT mean that I think Bristol Palin should have had an abortion. IT’S NOT UP TO ME! If she were my daughter… well, first I would have probably had her on the Pill… but I would hope that my daughter, by the time she was old enough to be having sex, would understand the importance of education, the importance of her being able to be financially independent as an adult and the importance of having a supportive partner and most importantly the importance of using birth control if she chooses to have sex… I think safe and supported choices should be made available and people should be free to make up their own minds. That’s it. That’s what “pro-choice” means.

By both John McCain and Sarah Palin being in favor of Federally-Sanctioned Forced Childbirth, they are saying that the pregnancy of each and every woman in America is the Government’s business, that the moment a sperm touches an egg the woman’s womb is “public property”. Therefore, according to Republican logic, Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is “our business”. Republicans can’t have it both ways. Pregnancy and childbirth are either private family matters for everyone or no one.

What will it be, Republicans?