Teenage Motherhood

by tristero

Due in good part to widespread and taxpayer-financed right wing efforts to suppress information, teach lies and advocate a specious morality – aka, so-called “abstinence-only education” – teenage birthrate has increased for the second consecutive year. Surprise, surprise. Remember: The right is wrong about everything.

There’s something enormous missing from this article and it’s this: while everyone agrees teenagers having babies is a serious problem, no one in the article explains exactly what the problem is. Why not just “roll with it,” as one of the teen mothers in the article suggests?

Here’s why. Despite what Republicans would have had you believing during the campaign, teen motherhood in the US is not Bristol Palin. Even though she has a set of truly bizarre parents, Bristol Palin and her baby will always have access to the kind of healthcare, education, and employment opportunities that the typical teen mother can’t even imagine. The Post article states:

Experts noted that the U.S. rate remains far higher than that of other industrialized nations.

This is a far reaching, exceedingly tragic problem – it’s hardly a lifestyle “choice” – that demands serious attention. The last thing this issue needs is the funding of cartoonish and dangerously ineffective social meddling designed by the worst, and most incompetent, elements of modern American society.