McCain picks a VP Candidate with a pregnant 17yo daughter

during Obama's speech in Denver, he says "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." the next day, his opponent's VP is announced, with a 17yo unmarried pregnant child. he has quickly stated that this is not a political issue, and they should not be discussing it. but i firmly and hotly disagree. the conversation should be on domestic issues and problems. everyone is addressing symptoms of problems and not addressing the root causes. you'll get the GOP bitching about welfare costs, but they don't see the cause of welfare is having poor people, and the causes of poor people are addressed through proper education funding (including college opportunity) and sexual education (including birth control, condoms, etc etc).

what i wish we could discuss in public - that palin's daughter is a victim of not having real sex education in our country. alaska's brilliant sex-ed policy is summarized here. i think it retarded that the GOP is excited about having their VP have a 17yo daughter pregnant out of wed-lock. it's ridiculously against their platform on one hand (abstinence only until marriage) and an idiotic act to be upheld and lauded. and yet here we are UNABLE in the press to have a real discussion about the rest of americans having babies in your teens and how it's a problem that is fixable and worth fixing because the governor's horny little daughter got knocked-up because she had never been given the sexual-education needed to play safe and properly plan a family. i'm not saying that all unintentional pregnancies are bad or unwanted. i'm not saying that children under 18 should not be allowed to be parents or to wed. i'm just saying that we are selling our children short not to give them the ability to make good choices when there are serious life-changing consequences on the line.

--In 1992 the Federal government spent more than $34 billion on welfare for families begun by teenagers, up from $16.6 billion in 1985. In 1995, Indiana spent $7.4 million in Aid to Dependent Children for approximately 2,700 teen parents.

--For every federal dollar spent on giving contraceptives to low-income women the government saves more than $4 in welfare payments, medical costs, etc.

--Of all the women aged 15-44 who received welfare or AFDC in 1993, over half (55%) became mothers when they were teenagers. Only 5% were currently teenage mothers; of these, 83% were aged 18-19.

to quote Obama -"We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." the things that are the causes are what obama is attacking, not the symptoms. i seriously hope he gets elected so that we can remove our heads from the sand/sphincter in which they have been on so many issues, teenage pregnancy being one of these.