National Review Online today:
Going Dutch [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Sociologist Amy Schalet has an op-ed in the Washington Post urging Americans to emulate the enlightened Dutch when it comes to teen sex. The op-ed, inevitably and tastelessly, has an early mention of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, which Schalet connects to the governor's support for "policies that prohibit teachers from explaining the benefits of contraception and condoms."
Things I dislike about this op-ed:
1) One of its premises is false. Gov. Palin favors no such policies. To its limited credit, the Post has appended a "clarification" to the op-ed online—but that clarification is inadequate. The clarification notes that Palin had said, as a gubernatorial candidate, that she opposed "explicit" sex education, and then notes that a spokeswoman last month said that she supports sex education including teaching about contraception. The implication is that she flipped on the issue while running for national office. In fact, Palin said while running for governor that her definition of "explicit" did not preclude teaching about contraception and that she indeed favored it. A correction, not a clarification, is in order.
2) "The Palins, of course, deserve credit for their public embrace of their eldest daughter, which shows that, ideology notwithstanding, parents still love their daughters even if they have sex." Right: Because everyone knows that social-conservative "ideology" normally requires that parents stone their sexually active daughters to death.
3) Even assuming that the Dutch approach is preferable, does Schalet really believe that Palin and other politicians can bring it about?
I think what I like best about the whole teen sex thing is the assumption that when kids get pregnant, they were, by definition, ignorant of the contraceptive options and were probably kept that way by religious parents with bad attitudes towards sex (bad from the Progressive viewpoint).
My 23 year old son and his long time girlfriend informed me recently that I am a grandfather-in-waiting, and that I will be a father-in-law.
And that both will occur in that order. Admittedly not my preferred order.
But one thing I am absolutely certain of - they both knew how to prevent this from occurring. I had that very explicit conversation with Prodigal Son when he was in the 7th Grade and his internet surfing habits evinced an interest in the feminine form.
I revisited it, if somewhat less explicitly, with his SO when it became clear they had, um, moved to that level of relating to each other.
Heh. When they came to tell us, they thought I was going to go through the roof. How little they really know me in that regard. I was just glad that while they may have had an tequila-influenced lapse in judgement, the real lesson stuck.
They're having that baby.
In this regard, I consider the 5-months-from-now-birth of my grandson a great victory for his grandmother and myself.
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