Bristol Palin Speaks the Truth on Fox: Abstinence 'Is Not Realistic at All'

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium. Posted February 18, 2009.

"I think abstinence is, I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all," new mother Bristol Palin told Greta Van Susteren in an interview on Fox News (video below). Bristol's unwed, teenage pregnancy made headlines last year just as her mother, Gov. Sarah Palin, kicked off her vice presidential bid. 

Samhita of Feministing.com writes, "I feel bad for her. [Bristol's] story was used by her family and the GOP to make an example of what is considered "responsible" behavior for a teen mom. Holding all that, she is telling the truth that abstinence is not realistic for young people, even if it should be what everyone strives for. Comprehensive sex-ed wouldn't be this unrealistic."

In Salon, Rebecca Traister dryly notes that all this honesty was too much for Fox News. As soon as Bristol said what everyone already knew, Sarah Palin hustled on stage to contradict her.

Jodi Jacobsen at RH Reality says it's time for federal government to acknowledge what Bristol learned the hard way and axe federal funding for abstinence-only education.

Here's wishing Bristol a happy National Condom Week. Too bad the stimulus package won't included expanded opportunities to cover birth control under Medicaid.

At Mother Jones, Taylor Wiles notes that Obama cut $335 million for STD prevention, and that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) nixed $150 million to fund the Violence Against Women Act. Over 600 public health professionals have written a letter protesting these and other health cuts in the stimulus. "A decent society doesn't spent $70 billion on an upper-class tax cut and then cut costs around around the edges by eliminating public health programs that save the lives of the working poor and ease the lives of the chronically ill,"

See more stories tagged with: sex, abstinence, sex ed, sarah palin, bristol palin

Lindsay Beyerstein is a New York writer blogging at majikthise.typepad.com

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