Ronnie Polaneczky: Bristol Palin: Proof that abstinence-only education doesn't work

BRISTOL PALIN AIN'T the luckiest girl in the country right now.

The daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Bristol is 17, unwed and pregnant - and the whole world knows it, thanks to her mom's new celebrity as John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Unlike many other knocked-up teens, Bristol and the baby's father, a guy named Levi, are at least lucky enough to have adults who'll shoulder the pregnancy with them.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," Sarah Palin said in a statement yesterday.

Palin, a strong advocate of abstinence-only sex education, didn't address the fact that the just-say-no method of birth control obviously failed for Bristol - the way, studies show, it fails so many teens.

At least Bristol falls into a luckier camp than those other sexually active teens. Her family is well-educated, well-resourced and intact, and they'll provide plenty of help as she learns the ropes of parenthood.

While Bristol has her folks as backup, I can't help thinking of all the other 17-year-olds - teens as sexually active as Bristol obviously is - who deserve to learn about all methods of birth control, not just abstinence.

Because if and when they find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy, they won't have the safety net of a financially comfortable and emotionally supportive family beneath them.

That's why it's disingenuous for the Palins to expect privacy as they deal with Bristol's impending motherhood.

Hell, Bristol is Exhibit A for why policies like her mom's abstinence-only programs, whose fallout is felt far beyond the Palin household, don't work.

The teen also is Exhibit A for the towering hypocrisy of McCain and Palin's anti-abortion stance. Yesterday, the McCain camp crowed about how Bristol had decided to keep her child, a choice that was "supported by her parents."

The irony of that statement has not been lost on pro-choice advocates who've been burning up the blogosphere in the wake of Bristol's baby announcement.

"And yet John McCain doesn't want women like Bristol Palin to have the ability to make that decision," posted a writer on the New York Times Web site yesterday. "This campaign cannot be allowed to make political hay out of a young woman making a choice when they don't believe she should have that choice."

Another reader noted how Bristol's middle-class status had somehow elevated her above the scorn usually heaped upon poor unwed teens:

"African-American teenage pregnancies in urban areas = the destruction of 'family values' by liberal principles. White, Republican teens get pregnant = a glorious day for traditional values."

I feel for Bristol, I truly do, the way I feel for any pregnant girl about to have a child when she's barely out of childhood herself. As Palin herself said yesterday, Bristol's pregnancy will "make her grow up faster than we had ever planned."

That doesn't mean Bristol won't evolve into a wonderful mother, the way many pregnant teens do - especially when they're blessed with caring, supportive grown-ups to help them, and their babies, transcend the many challenges of too-young parenthood.

As Barack Obama pointed out yesterday, when asked to comment on Bristol's pregnancy, his own mom was a teenager when he was born. And that didn't stop him from becoming the country's Democratic presidential nominee.

Then again, his mom was surrounded by supports, the way Bristol is.

My thoughts, today, are for all those girls who aren't as blessed - the ones learning, in sex-ed class, that abstinence is the only way to deal with their exploding sexuality.

Who'll back them up when the method fails them, because they didn't learn enough to make a different choice? *

E-mail polaner@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2217. For recent columns:

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