Posted on 01/09/2009 8:10:32 AM PST by lewisglad
In the final half hour of Thursday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Bianca Solorzano reported on an increase in the teen pregnancy rate, using Bristol Palin as an example: "Teen pregnancy was on the RNC platform this year, literally, as Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, was about to give birth. Jamie Lynne Spears made headlines at 16, not for her acting, but the grown-up, real-life role of becoming a teen mom. These famous faces front a growing problem." A graphic appeared on screen declaring: "Teen Pregnancy: The Growing Crisis."
Later, Solorzano explained: "After more than a decade of progress, experts fear we've been lulled into a false sense of security. And have stopped pouring resources into prevention." A clip of the movie ‘Juno’ was then played, after which Solorzano exclaimed: "And unlike the comedy 'Juno,' there's nothing funny about the nation's growing number of teenage mothers."
Here is the full transcript of the segment:
8:31AM SEGMENT:
RUSS MITCHELL: We're going to begin this half hour with a story about teen pregnancies on the rise. It is a reversal of recent trends. CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano has more.
[GRAPHIC ON SCREEN: 'Teen Pregnancy: The Growing Crisis']
BIANCA SOLORZANO: Teen pregnancy was on the RNC platform this year, literally, as Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, was about to give birth. Jamie Lynne Spears made headlines at 16, not for her acting, but the grown-up, real-life role of becoming a teen mom. These famous faces front a growing problem. A new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows for the first time in almost 15 years, the number of teen birth rates is on the rise.
BILL ALBERT [NATIONAL TEEN PREGNANCY CAMPAIGN]: We've got a problem nationally, that we've got a problem in nearly every state, and that we have a problem among all racial and ethnic groups.
SOLORZANO: Teen births are up significantly in 26 states. Mississippi now leads the nation with the highest teen pregnancy rate. 68 births for every 1,000 teenage girls. New Mexico and Texas aren't far behind. In comparison, New Hampshire has the nation's lowest rate. 19 births for every 1,000 female teens. After more than a decade of progress, experts fear we've been lulled into a false sense of security. And have stopped pouring resources into prevention.
[CLIP OF MOVIE 'JUNO']
JENNIFER GARNER: Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
ELLEN PAGE: Nah, I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?
[END OF CLIP]
SOLORZANO: And unlike the comedy 'Juno,' there's nothing funny about the nation's growing number of teenage mothers. Bianca Solorzano, CBS News, New York.
—Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
I have a picture of a whole bunch of great uncles, great great uncles, their brothers and cousins, and so on outside a lumberyard just over a century ago. Every single one of them has a shotgun or rifle in hand, and most were wearing a pistol belt. Some had bandoliers of ammunition draped over their shoulders.
It was just a nice summer day and they were out doin' stuff ARMED TO THE TEETH.
A shotgun marriage was for whatever reason that clan thought appropriate!
I know there are a lot of traditions. But Sarah has been held up as a beacon for traditional, conservative American values. In my over 60 years as a traditional, conservative American, I have always believed that that included (hopefully) having marriage before sex, but, at the very least, having marriage before baby.
It's not like this is strange behavior. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi's grandparents knew all about that custom.
Think of it as "two Americas, two traditions" ~ which is why first-borns carry so much more authority in this country ~ they are born to accept "what is", not "what oughta be".
I’m not sure if you’re kidding or not. If you ARE kidding, ignore my question. But... You’re not saying that because in some time and place somebody’s culture had believed in X or Y, then X or Y is automatically okay? The Palins believe, I think, in traditional AMERICAN conservative values, one of which is definitely NOT saying “Oh, the Aztecs used to do it, so it’s okay. Don’t want to be culturally insensitive or anything.”
>It’s not the young girls “giving birth” that’s the real problem ~ it’s the adults in their life forcing them to kill their babies.<
Truer words were never spoken. Some parents, when trying to keep their young girls from becoming pregnant, stress that pregnancy will absolutely ruin their lives, and that abortion is the only logical choice.
That attitude can haunt a teen girl the rest of her life.
You need to study up on figures of speech. I wasn't speaking for myself if I was the one pointing out, now, was I?
Absolutely.
LLS
Yes, but my point is, what if one of them were a pregnant teenager?
Yes, but my point is, what if one of them was a pregnant teenager?
As an observer of the human condition I find it interesting that conservative religious right parents feel it is more important in 2009 to NOT ABORT BABIES and bring fetuses to term than for a couple to marry while even 40 years ago these same types of people felt it was more important for their children to remain chaste before marriage and would not support their daughters if they wanted to become single parents and live under their roof and thus preferred that their daughter not have the child at all and if she did give it away for adoption. I’m not saying that they counselled abortion in the ‘good old days’ but let’s put it this way—they would have been just as happy if the child was delivered stillborn. In the ‘good old days’ the reputation of the family was far more important than welcoming a bastard. Isn’t it ironic with the advent of the birth control pill and more knowledge about birth control that families have become more lax about their daughters claiming unwed status? You would think that parents would come to the conclusion that their daughters had no business getting pregnant outside of marriage with the means readily available not to do so and thus be even more upset than parents of yesteryear whose daughters did not have access to the ‘pill’ or birth control info. Perhaps abortion as a political and moral issue has superseded the need to preserve a family’s reputation from embarrassment and disgrace. How many young women before 1960 would have kept their babies if their parents who at that time also considered themselves religious conservatives had adopted the modern attitudes of 2009? By the way pro-life conservatives who support artificial contraception would not want to admit it but their position in 2009 lines up squarely with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who invested her time and money heavily in developing the ‘pill’ so that families could be ‘planned’. How many 2009 religious right parents oppose ‘family planning’? Not very many I would think. And I’m not talking about abortion here.
Another excellent point.
There would have been justified outrage because Obama wouldn’t have let his daughter be “punished with a baby”. There would have been no way one of his daughters would have given birth.
Well they haven’t married and apparently not living together, either. In reading about yesterday’s lengthy interview, John Zeigler said in his column that when he arrived at the Palin’s in Wasilla, Bristol answered the door as Sarah was not yet ready. She then went to a badroom where Tripp was.
(BTW, I read the Zeigler interview was held at the Palin home to avoid criticism (previously levied) that Palin was using her office on state property for non-state business.)
Today my understanding is that the same families no longer practice polygamy. On the otherhand it's not unusual throughout Alaska in indigenous villages for girls to marry early.
So just what is the Alaska "tradition"? (he says slyly knowing that the Presbyterian missionaries got to the Yupik before the Orthodox).
Next year Fur Shur eh?
CBS News: The Face of 'Growing Crisis' of Propagandist Media
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That's what that legal stuff was about with the unmarried American girl having a baby abroad, and the baby didn't automatically become a citizen ~ the practice was actually regulated by law there was so much of it.
Other groups in the country kept the babies, and the daughter would eventually get married to a guy ~ usually a farmer ~ who would already have an eldest daughter growing up to take care of his kids as they came along, or maybe an eldest son to take to the plough before his own were ready.
I think of Tom Lincoln who went and got a new wife right off the bat ~ no ifs, ands or buts. The family was more important than any sense of citified propriety or delicate sensibilities of the church ladies. Young Abe needed a momma and his daddy got him one.
Did you know George Washington was raised by his elder brother, like Ben Franklin in fact, and when he grew up he married a widow with children ~ and that's how his family was made. He had no children of his own. Franklin had lots of children ~ and John Adams had grandchildren like the sands of the desert!
Andrew Jackson regularly defended his wife's honor.
I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean by Conservative, religious, rightwing parents, but I know that the Founders accepted these things as they happened and were the better men for it.
And I suspect that none of Angelina Jolie's kids are going to cost the taxpayers anything to support, either. So what are you complaining about?
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