“I don't want to get into detail about [contraception]...Everyone should be abstinent... but it’s not realistic at all,” Bristol Palin told Fox News back in February. As the daughter of Sen. John McCain’s 2008 running-mate Gov. Sarah Palin, this comment sent many a conservative into a tizzy. Those same conservatives might be even more upset now to learn that Bristol Palin, 18, who just gave birth back in December, has called off her wedding to the child’s father, Levi Johnston, 19, according to People magazine. The image of an unexpected teenage pregnancy turning into a beautiful, perfect family has been shattered.
But let’s face reality. Was their unexpected pregnancy ever really going to turn into a perfect family? How much of the pregnancy was romanticized for the campaign and how much has changed now that a political campaign is no longer on the line? How much of this case, and so many others like it, involves reputation more than anything else?
Whether Bristol and Levi were ever really going to get married is a question that can still be debated, but the public has now learned a valuable lesson about the politics of personal lives: When it comes to winning, politicians will do anything to make things seem better than they are and, in the media, talking about serious issues is often sacrificed in order to save face.
When McCain tapped Palin to be his running-mate at the Republican Convention last year, the Republican Party fell in love with the feisty mother from Alaska. But when details started pouring in about her personal life, the picture was not quite as rosy. A former pageant queen with little political experience? A mother of five, including an infant with Down syndrome, running for Vice President? An advocate for abstinence-only education with a pregnant 17-year-old daughter? Suddenly, it was time for damage control.
And whether Bristol liked it or not, she was the new face of teenage pregnancy. But in order to “normalize” Bristol’s pregnancy and defend the values that the Republican party holds so dear, Bristol’s situation had to be seen as conventional, not irresponsible. So, it was revealed that little 17-year-old Bristol was getting married to her high school sweetheart. Whew. Now, the public could move on.
But the media’s treatment of Bristol’s pregnancy was incredibly irresponsible. Because of charges of sexism, it was somehow taboo to even talk about Bristol’s pregnancy as a result of Sarah Palin’s mothering. By telling the public that Bristol was to be married, the issue of her pregnancy was simply swept under the rug. “She may be young, but she is doing the right thing by making a family for her unborn child,” the media said.
Instead of opening a dialogue on the very real problem of teenage pregnancy and irresponsible sexual practices among young people in this country, the Republican Party and the media preferred to close the conversation altogether. The fact that Bristol is now willing to take a stand and admit that promoting abstinence is unrealistic shows that even someone from one of the most conservative families in America can see from life experience that some things work only in theory.
The media could have used Bristol as an example of the failure of abstinence-only education, but instead they gave her a pass. The media could have talked about how half of American teens are sexually active by the time they finish high school, over three million get an STD every year, and four out of every ten girls under twenty becomes pregnant. They could have also talked about how America has the highest number of teen pregnancies in the industrialized world and how Bristol is only one of them. But they didn’t.
When hot-button issues like this arise in political campaigns, politicians should do more than try to create the perfect image of the perfect candidate. Bristol’s pregnancy was unplanned, and it is something that will affect her for the rest of her life. The acceptance of it and the attempt to normalize it sends a very confusing message to teenagers who have always been told one thing and now see another. If we want to discourage teenage pregnancy and promote better sexual practices, then we need to send a consistent message.
In the end, I applaud Bristol for her attempts to speak openly and frankly about her situation. By admitting that her situation is not as rosy as it seems, she actually sends a far more positive message to other girls in this country than trying to make everything seem okay. And by not giving into the pressure to marry at such a young age, she will avoid this sobering statistic from the New York Times: Teenage marriages are twice as likely to fail as those in which the woman is at least 25.
Now that the political campaign is over, it is time to get real. Teenage pregnancy is not romantic, and it is never the ideal. I never thought I’d say this, but I guess we have all learned a little something from Sarah Palin.
Lindsay Huggins is a senior columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at l.huggins@cavalierdaily.com.
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