My inclination is to label it "The Stupidity of Teenage Pregnancy," but there is a minor conflict underway between Planned Parenthood of NYC and a blog by Keli Goff, Why Liberals Are Wrong on Teen Pregnancy.
Goff defends NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's TV campaign against teen pregnancy:
I was reminded of this scene as I read the ridiculous criticism being lobbed by a bunch of well-meaning privileged people at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his support of an ad campaign aimed at curbing teen pregnancy in that city. The campaign pulls no punches, featuring infant children surrounded by quotes about how their lives, and the lives of their families, are likely to turn out in households headed by teen parents. One poster reads, "If you finish high school, get a job, and get married before having children, you have a 98 percent chance of not being in poverty." Another reads, "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen."
Apparently some liberal critics publicly object to the campaign (including a few of my well-intentioned but misguided friends in media and politics, who won't care for this piece and will probably tell me so). But they don't object to the campaign on the basis of fact, because, of course, the campaign is factually accurate. A child is statistically more likely to have access to greater financial and academic opportunity if not raised by a teen mother. So just what is it about the campaign that has critics so riled up?
Well, according to Planned Parenthood, "The latest NYC ad campaign creates stigma, hostility and negative public opinions about teen pregnancy and parenthood rather than offering alternative aspirations for young people." I'm not sure where to start with this lunacy. First off, I thought that as one of the nation's leading sexual-health organizations, Planned Parenthood would focus on decreasing the number of unplanned pregnancies, not celebrating and encouraging them. Did I miss something?
Keli Goff gets it very, very right.
Teenage motherhood is basically a rude, crude negative position in our backward patriarchal culture and a hell of a position in which to put an innocent little kid. Teenaged girls are being royally screwed by a woman-unfriendly culture -- most religions stigmatize illegitimate births, hate female sexuality and hate kids once they exit the womb.
Our world is a hateful, mean nasty place for little kids and unwed mothers. Teenage girls should do every damn thing possible to avoid being in such situations. No one will love them for it.
Get real about how much women are hated in this horrifically patriarchal world.
Get real! The penis is a weapon of war.
Witness the lovely little rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, the vicious murder of a young woman in India, the viciousness against women in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan and other points in the world, icky old Mormon men who rape young innocents...
World! You got a whole lot of shaping up to do.
I'm sorry to say, the new pope, the first Francis, he may love the poor, but don't count on too much love for women from this man who is fearful of female priests.
Oh, and I must never forget to mention our lovely U.S. military where raped women -- and men -- are denied justice.