[LearsFool]

Why on earth is a girl that age having sex?

Uh..Because she's entering her prime childbearing years? Duh!

It's unnatural for men and women to be told "you're too young" when Nature says otherwise. We force them into this manufactured moral quandary, creating a problem where none existed - thereby creating an opening for our own self-centered, parasitic power-lust to devour and consume the wholesomeness and well-being of the young.

(In some ways, this is merely the flip-side of those who take perverse pleasure in introducing children to pornography and "sex ed". What a sick society we've become.)

[Bigg Red]

What an idiot this writer is.

[HighlyOpinionated]

If there is one lesson that we, as parents, should learn from our children it’s that despite our best intentions, despite our instructions and admonishments, they aren’t always going to obey.

Kids screw up. That’s part of being kids. And a sad fact in today’s world is that, despite whatever we tell them, kids are also screwing around.

Telling a teenager that abstinence is the only acceptable approach denies the reality of the world they’re living in, just as it denies the reality of our own experience: children don’t always listen. The only thing that an abstinence-only approach gives us is the cold comfort of reminding ourselves we taught them better.

Abstinence IS the only way to insure that a person does not get an STD or a girl does not get pregnant. Hands down, no discussion.

That teens and young adults will not listen is true, but A LOT DO LISTEN and there's no way to know if YOURS will be in the group that listens or does what they want in the heat of the moment until afterward.

But because we can't be 100% sure that our child will listen to us is no reason not to keep on preaching abstinence.

As some here know, my own teen daughter got pregnant out of wedlock (father not in the picture) and decided that she wanted her son to be adopted/raised by a married couple. She reconnected with him last summer and he's getting married later this year. He's in the Army and has been to Iraq, is expecting to be sent to Afghanistan. She did the best thing for her son. He's a fine young man who looks and acts like a combination of my father, my brother, my son and my daughter's younger son. Nature beats out nurture. I was not and am not a 'bad' mother for stressing abstinence. My daughter could buy prophylactics just as easily as the boys.

So it's not a "prevention" of pregnancy issue. It's a SELF-CONTROL issue.

And the boys need to be taught by their fathers to Keep It Inside The Pants! Quit making this a 'girl' or 'female' issue. To do so is sexism at its worst. I want to see more advertisements with MEN/BOYS telling other men/boys that THEY have an obligation to be abstinent, too. Quit making "sex" as casual as a handshake. Make it something to "keep" for a committed/married relationship. [And that goes for 'gays' too.]

[McBuff]

Right. . .forget "just say no". . .instead just say "I surrender" It's true, that the "culture" is constantly promoting the idea as normal that kids should have sex early and often. . .but whose voice is that? It is the voice of the Left. . .the same voice that also inculcates the excuse that its not "realistic" to expect kids to not copulate like rabbits.

If someone points out that 70 - 80% of all violent crime are committed by individuals without fathers. . .its unrelated. . .in fact, something must be wrong with you for even bringing it up.

Here's the truth. It is in the political interest of the cultural Left to promote the sexual motive as the predominate basis of young men and women to relate. The Left actively seeks to DESTROY the family and especially the value system that holds the family together. Less family solidarity means a populace more prone to government dependency and loyalty to the State. There is a political motive to the destruction of moral values.

The Founder's understood that Freedom was a gift of God and that our rights were bequeathed to us by God. Our part of this sacred Covenant is to be a virtuous people. When we surrender to the idea that virtue is beyond the reach of youth and is no longer the expectation of parents. We are no longer free. . .because we will no longer understand our responsibility in the maintenance of Freedom.

Without virtue, the people willing surrender their freedom. . .and turn to the intoxication of false hopes.

[agrace]

Wow. Abstinence education is useless because most teens have sex anyway. (Never mind the 30% that chooses not to - abstinence education had no effect on them, of course. In fact, considering the counter-barrage teens get in the form of safe sex ed, free handouts, Planned Parenthood in schools etc, I’m amazed the abstinent percent is as high as it is.)

Using the author’s logic and examples, we shouldn’t bother to teach our kids to keep their hands out of the litter box, eat their vegetables, be honest, dress modestly, and not to drink, steal, cheat or have sex...because their very nature says they’ll probably do all that stuff anyway.

Silly me. I guess instead we should give our kids gloves for the litter box. Oh wait, we DO do that - they’re called condoms at that age.

[four more in O 4]

/Melancholy on

For the majority of the time America has been, Churches played a pivotal role in our lives and our outlook on life and the future. The sense of community and family kept the children in line, and the gift of faith in a power greater than ourselves helped us to tow that line of right verses wrong.

When I was in high school, it was an absolute scandal when a girl got pregnant, a lot of times the parents would whisk the girl off to a shelter for the gestation and eventual birth. The girl would come back to town and the family would have a new “niece” or “nephew”. Shame was a great motivator in how we conducted ourselves in respect to our standing in the community. There is no more shame, it has been usurped by so-called progress.

The waning morality of the culture took a nose dive with the courts decision of Roe-v-wade. As a result, it seems abstinence is no longer a chaste goal, and marriage is no longer the norm. That is the bigger issue, not abstinence, but a goal for a girl to offer her husband her most precious gift on their wedding night. No marriage, no gift.

It no longer matters and as a society, we have suffered a plight on our senses, dreams, morals and goals the likes of which the devil himself could not have orchestrated.

All in the name of “choice”.

/Melancholy off

[don'tbedenied]

This is stupid on multiple levels:

1. A statistical sample of one proves nothing.
2. Since when are the children of politicians indiscretions attributed to the parents? (New rule for Palin, when Gore's kid was high and driving 100MPH it was “unfair” to cover it.)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Unless Bristol had been pregnant 4-5 times since she was 10 and aborted them all, this wasn’t such a bad outcome compared to everything else that’s going on.

[danmyte]

Ok, so according to many on here if I have a child that becomes pregnant I can never say anything about the importance of abstinence? Really?? That is such convoluted thinking. I have 5 children including a 21 year-old son and 3 teenage daughters and so far so good. None drink, smoke, do drugs or have sex. But if one did, I would not lessen my preaching of the importance of abstinence but increase it. I was once told that because I have never been drunk that I do not have a right to speak out against it. Now, some are sayig that if I ever have a child that is drunk that I can never speak out agianst it. I say to hell with them. I will stand for what is right regardless. Sex education needs to be honest and the honest part is that abstinence works every time it is executed.

[count-your-change]

No rules, no teaching, especially no “ Fornication is wrong in God's eyes”, no parental example.

But lots of, kids will be kids, we did too at that age, its not reasonable to expect chastity, be careful, its just normal.

Surprise! The kids got the message.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

particularly when she was raised by a mother who staunchly supports abstinence-only education? Didn’t she listen?

Reality check. Sarah herself told Greta in the interview that abstinence is naive. I believe she has admitted in the past that she was pregnant with Track when she and Todd married.

Everybody wants to blame Bristol but kids will do as their parents do, not as their parents say *wink wink*. Let's stop bashing Bristol and stop changing our personal beliefs to accomodate our chosen candidate.

[WildcatClan]

This article is ridiculous and tritely paints human beings as mere animals that cannot possibly control primal instincts. I like Sarah but I do wish she would take a break from the media. They are not going to give her a break, ever. This woman is attacked incessantly on a personal level and her continued participation in national media events defies understanding.

I think to be a great Governor of Alaska is not a bad thing at all. I think that she should continue to do, as she is now doing and concentrate all her efforts there. I think also Palin has become this “build your own” candidate for so many in the GOP just as Obama was for the Rats. I want GOP politicians to have supporters and not fans. Palin is a patriot and a conservative but this incredible support she has, mere months into Zero’s reign, is premature at best.

I do not believe her to be near ready for primetime, on the national scene. Below are just a few things that I oppose and some I merely question. Her view on illegal immigration is the one that I vehemently oppose as she is attempting to re-package Shamnesty. :

Predatory lenders got us into the housing crisis. (Oct 2008)

Taxpayers cannot be looked to as Wall Street bailout. (Sep 2008)

Smoked marijuana when it was legal under Alaska law. (Aug 2006)

Support charters & home schools; not private school vouchers. (Oct 2006)

Took no action on Alaska’s “sanctuary cities”. (Sep 2006)

I do support capping carbon emissions. (Oct 2008)

Fund cellulosic biofuel research in Farm Bill. (Oct 2007)

Only a very small percent of Islamic believers are extreme. (Sep 2008)

Supports a path to citizenship, but no amnesty for illegals. (Oct 2008)

[Skooz]

So, if a teen who has attended “comprehensive sex education” gets pregnant, that is proof that “comprehensive sex education” doesn’t work?

[abigailsmybaby]

You could say the same thing about preaching to homosexuals about using protection so they don’t pass AIDS around. How’s that working out?

[Question_Assumptions]

What's absurd about this line of reasoning is that contraceptive education doesn't work, either. From everything we know, Bristol Palin got contraceptive education and so did plenty of other childrent that don't use it. They forget to use condoms for the same reason why they forget their abstinence vows. Their brains are someplace else during the heat of the moment. Yet this is considered a failure for abstinence training but not sex education which, in order to create an illusion of "safe" sex needs to put girls on birth control pills, tell boys to use condoms, keep abortion without parental concent legal, and has to give girls HPV vaccines, cervical cancer screening, and AIDS tests, as well as other STD treatments, date rape education, and the future fertility implications of STDs and so on and they have the chutzpah to call the sex "safe" and pretend as if it's clearly the right solution?

No, abstinence doesn't always work but neither does sex education, and once that's been establishes, it's not about finding the perfect solution but the one with the least consequences for society and young men and women. And for whatever flaws Sarah Palin may have had teacher her daughter about abstinence, she kept the baby and wants to marry the father, which is a far better outcome than "hooking up" with a different guy every week in college, having an abortion, and having trouble having kids in her late 30s, not to mention the substantial increase in risk of heart disease from birth control pills and so on. So is Bristol's situation ideal? Of course not. But it's a lot better than a lot of the scenarios offered by sex education advocates.