Stop looking for shock and outrage from social conservatives about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. They love little babies! Liberals and moderates are the ones who see early, unwanted pregnancies as a problem. We look at Bristol and see some seriously diminished choices for her future. Conservatives, on the other hand, look at a pregnant teen and a shotgun wedding as "life as it should be!" What better way to keep women at home than to have them knocked up in high school. This is why they are against birth control as much as they oppose abortion. Progressives would be wise to understand that birth control, not abortion, is the true front on the war against reproductive rights.
For a long time I bought the religious right's argument that they were pro-life and they just couldn't stand by and watch all those poor babies being murdered. But then it became clear that they didn't advocate sex education or birth control which are the most effective ways of reducing the rate of abortions.
Most common-sense individuals believe that we should eliminate unwanted pregnancies. Most level headed Americans support comprehensive sex education taught in public school and the use of birth control by sexually active people who aren’t ready for children. This was a problem for social conservatives, so they came up with a sex "education" curriculum that they could offer as an alternative. This new approach, which focused on abstinance, is all about how bad sex is and how you shouldn't have it. (And, by the way, contraceptives don't work 2-15% of the time so you shouldn't even bother using them at all if you do have sex.) This is the "Abstinance Only" program that the Bush administration has funded to the exclusion of real sex-ed with our tax dollars.
The problem, of course, with Abstinance Only programs is that they do not work. Everyone knows that teenagers have sex. On this we can all agree-- biologists, social scientists, religious counselors, high school principals, my Aunt Jane and your cousin Richie all know this. So, Abstinance Only programs are merely a gimmick designed to promote teen pregnancy. It gives social conservatives political and moral coverage while they pursue their real goal of forcing kids into parenthood before they are ready so they don't leave their hometowns and their parents and their churches to go to some high-fallutin college where they may get turned into an elitist and reject everything they came from.
For religious conservatives, pregnancy is the most blessed and exalted state of being. That is why they love Sarah Palin-- she has FIVE children! If she had only three, she would not be on the ticket. This is so important to them, that they will change their views on working mothers and accept that the new mother of a special needs child will be stepping into one of the most demanding jobs in America. This is why the revelation that Bristol obviously had sex out of wedlock is greeted as a good thing. Not a demonstration of bad parenting or hypocritical values. She's pregnant! Yeah!!!
And here we come to the real heart of the matter: Fundamentalists believe that every sex act should lead to the potential birth of a child. Period. It doesn’t matter whether you are a child yourself or whether or not you are married. This is why they don’t like gays and lesbians, oral sex, masturbation, etc. etc. It is why they oppose birth control, even for married couples. It is why they lobby to remove funding of HIV/AIDS programs that distribute condoms to African women-- where every act of intercourse is a potential death sentence. It is why they expect rape victims to give birth to their rapist’s child. All sex without the potential for conception is an act of selfish hedonism.
Of course, this isn’t a mainstream viewpoint. But they have been very adept at pushing their agenda through back channels where most people aren’t looking. Such as conscience clauses that allow doctors and pharmacists to refuse treatment (abortion, sterilization, insemmination) or prescriptions (birth control, morning after pills, iuds, etc.). ; the recent attempts by the Bush Administration to blur the lines of abortion and contraception; and the federal funding of abstinance only sexual "education" in public schools.
So, there you have it folks. No outrage over Bristol Palin’s premarital sex, because she didn’t use evil birth control and has been blessed with a baby! For the radical right, it doesn’t get any better than that.