I get regular alerts from RedState.com, just because I like to know what exactly they're thinking over there about the latest issues of the day. Today, of course, the discussion centers around the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol.
First things first: any denigration of Bristol Palin is not only unwarranted, it is completely unhelpful. We know nothing of Bristol Palin's character or motivations, and we must certainly respect her choices. Also, unless you're willing to say that you had no desire to mess around in a potentially consequential way when you were that age.
So it was with great disgust that I read plagiarizer Ben Domenech's entry at RedState.com arguing that we anonymous bloggers are hideous people who want to see as many abortions as possible and will revile Bristol's decision.
Ben, I have news for you: It's about the failure of conservative parenting.
From Virgin Ben:
We'll see how the media inevitably bashes this young woman for her choice in the coming days, in the wake of covering up the John Edwards love child for 2+ years, and botching the story when it came out as they bent over backwards to avoid criticism. Nah, that wasn't bias.
But it's fitting that in this moment, one of the toughest a young woman can face, Bristol Palin has chosen on her own to take the right path. This baby is not a "punishment,", as Obama so famously said; it is not an object to be destroyed, as Obama argued for in the Illinois State Senate; he or she is a human life, one worthy of receiving the love of a mother and father. And we rejoice in the knowledge that a family will receive this blessing into the world."
Now, I'm not going to get into the part about the media bashing Bristol Palin's decision--as if it's contestable or even provable that the media wants to see abortions. But let's talk for a minute about the idea of babies as punishment. Turns out, actually, that viewing forced births as punishment for sexual indiscretions is a staple of the right wing. Take Town Hall columnist Ben Shapiro (Virgin Ben 2.0):
On abortion, why Ben should be able to tell a woman she cannot have one:
The Virgin Ben: You chose to have sex and mistakes were made...
So, maybe Virgin Ben 1 can take that issue up with Virgin Ben 2. And, like I've written before: how else can you explain the position of so many people out there who favor outlawing abortion except in cases of rape? Babies caused by rape are less human and less alive than those caused by consensual sex? No, it's simply that a lot of conservatives believe that if the sex wasn't the woman's fault, she shouldn't bear the consequences.
And as further evidence that neither we nor our nominee want to see as many abortions as possible, I offer you this, from Barack Obama's acceptance speech:
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.
And that is what the issue of Bristol Palin's pregnancy is really about: it's the failure of ideologically-driven, rather than reality-based, parenting.
It is about the irony of Ben Domenech's idealized feminist conservative mother unable to instill the values that would keep her daughter from the moral turpitude of premarital sex, an unwanted pregnancy and a shotgun wedding (unless, of course, those things are no longer so bad once they happen to a white, social conservative politician--in that case, we pray for them.)
It is, rather, an encapsulation of the fact that socially conservative abstinence-only education policies and parenting techniques like those undoubtedly espoused by Sarah Palin do not work at all when it comes to preventing their own definition of murder.
And no amount of railing against the "hideous bloggers" who stir up the calm surface waters of the Pleasantville of social conservatism to expose the foul stench of what is hidden below will overcome that one fundamental truth.
The story of Bristol Palin's clandestine pregnancy is not her failure, and we all wish Bristol, her child and her husband-to-be the best in life. Conversely, we should also hope that Bristol learns from the mistakes of her parents and raises her child in a way that will prevent him or her from repeating them.