People are saying that Sarah Palin’s family values should be off-limits.  I disagree.  I think when your family stumbles, it’s private.  If you want to be a heartbeat from the Presidency and you stumble over an important social issue, we get to look. 

Sarah Palin can believe whatever she likes about abortion and she seems to be in step with the Republican Party.  The party platform includes opposition to abortion under any circumstances, even in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother.  No abortions, no exceptions.  That seems like several steps back for women’s rights, but it’s okay with me.  I believe most Americans will reject that kind of extremism.  I mean, what person in their right mind would be against an operation that could save a woman’s life?  The Republicans, that’s who.  Sarah’s in step with a party which is out of step with America.  Basically, I couldn’t be happier.

I really want to ask about the daughter’s pregnancy and I believe I have valid reasons.  But first, can we all agree that when a 17 year-old gets pregnant it’s a bad thing?  It was a mistake?  It shouldn’t have happened?  Maybe she was practicing safe sex and there was an accident or mechanical failure.  Her mom has said that the daughter is keeping the baby and will marry the teen father.  Hopefully he’ll be a committed dad, even though on the internet he’s announced he hates kids.  Probably just a phase.  That’s as far into the daughter’s dealings as we need to get, because the mom, the would-be VP and her values are what count. 

The reason they count is because Governor Sarah Palin is against teaching sex education in Alaskan schools.  They didn’t teach sex ed when I was in school.  It came along in the 70’s when health officials wanted to stem the rising tide of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s).  It was also in response to more and more studies showing that young people were not learning “the facts of life” at home. 

There’s a chance that the daughter was practicing safe sex and it failed.  A very small chance.  Used correctly, condoms fail about 2% of the time and the pill fails less than 1%.  The much greater likelihood is that she wasn’t practicing the safe sex her mother doesn’t want taught to girls her age.      

This year, some 850,000 teens will get pregnant and over 9 million people under age 25 will contract about 9.1 million STD’s. By age 18, 70% of U.S. females and 62% of U.S. males have initiated vaginal sex.  If Sarah Palin wants to be Vice President, I say those statistics count, that those particular family values are our business and so far, I’m not impressed.