Governor Palin's Daughter- Guest Post

Abstinence Clearinghouse Commends Governor Palin’s Response to Daughter’s PregnancyAccording to Leslee Unruh, Founder of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, “The Abstinence Clearinghouse commends Governor Sarah Palin’s family for their compassionate and reasonable response toward their daughter Bristol’s pregnancy. We respect the Palin family’s privacy.”
Young people from all walks of life are daily exposed to sexual messages through billboards, magazines, music, internet, peers and condom educators in the schools. Teaching young people sexual integrity – as is done in abstinence education – how to withstand the pressures of their peers, combat the messages they receive from the media, and how to make the healthiest choices should be top priority when it comes to our youth. Unruh stated, “When it comes to educating our youth about their sexuality – condom education is failing our youth. It sexualizes youth by exposing them to sexual images thus lowering the expectations for their behavior. It puts them at risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases because condoms don’t work 100% of the time. Not to mention the emotional stress and heartbreak that sex itself can cause. Youth need abstinence education, which teaches sexual integrity and offers the healthiest message – how to eliminate the risk from their lives completely. Anything less than the healthiest message should not be good enough for our country’s youth.

”Unruh continues, “Many people have given opinions on what Governor Palin should or should not do in light of her daughter’s pregnancy…there is a saying, ‘Man isn’t made in a crisis, he is revealed.’ In this case, it’s a woman. Governor Palin had a reputation for being strong before this but any mother knows that when someone targets your child, you become even stronger. Governor Palin’s response to the criticism of her daughter’s pregnancy has been respectful and compassionate toward her daughter.” Unruh concludes, “I think one thing remains clear through this all – parents should be the primary sex educators of their children and when a child makes choices other than the message they have been given by the parents, it doesn’t mean the message is a bad one. We know of thousands of young people who have waited. Wouldn’t it be nice if the media spent as much time showing the success stories of those who have waited until they are married as those who have made mistakes?”