Oh boy, this is getting good.
First there were the rumors that Bristol Palin was secretly the mother of Sarah and Todd Palin’s youngest child.
But now the Palins are admitting that seventeen-year-old Bristol is five months pregnant and will be both parenting the child and marrying the child’s father.
Even more incredibly, the Palins have issued a statement on the matter in which they equate pregnancy/parenting with “growing up” and “the responsibilities of adulthood”:
“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”
This couldn’t be happening at a better time. (For me as a blogger, anyway.)
First we have the Wall Street Journal’s “deputy Taste editor”, Naomi Shaeffer Riley, encouraging McCain to use his connection to adoption to woo evangelicals.
Then we have the suspicion cast on Casey Anthony, mother of missing toddler Caylee Anthony, intensified by reports that Ms. Anthony had considered adoption for Caylee whilst pregnant. Paradoxically, this has resulted in a great deal of hand-wringing by those who decry both teen parenthood and immature young women being encouraged by their own mothers to not relinquish their children.
And now we have the Governor of Alaska and candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States asserting that being a teen mom is going to make her daughter “grow up” into “the responsibilities of adulthood”.
Right.
What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a perfect example of the convoluted havoc that the issues of adoption, reproductive rights, and motherhood plays on our minds. Over the past week we have learned the following:
1. Adopting children is a noble thing and a Christian obligation, even if in some cases it is tantamount to kidnapping and human trafficking.
2. Adopting children makes a good campaign story, even when “the story” is not true. It is also a good way to make a somewhat tainted candidate look good to evangelicals.
3. Considering placing your child for adoption, on the other hand, is a bad thing, because it makes you a more likely suspect in the disspearance (possible death) of your child.
4. Discouraging your daughter from placing her child for adoption is likewise a bad thing, because you are encourging your immature daughter to care for a child she doesn’t want, and this is going to lead to your daughter doing something bad to the child.
(Still following me? Good.)
5. But if you are a state governor who is the running mate of the “adoption candidate” for the presidency of the United States, you are going to promote the idea that your teenage daughter’s pregnancy is a sure-fire path to adulthood and maturity.
Mixed messages, to be sure, and now I have a headache. Some analysis after my family barbecue.
To be continued. . .
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