Bristol Palin was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren of Fox News and she had some interesting things to say about teens and sex. Van Susteren asked Bristol if she was "just lazy" about using contraception, she replied that expecting teens to be abstinent was "not realistic at all." She suggested that teens should try to abstain from sex before marriage, but that it was so accepted by kids today it was almost impossible to do. The Palin family is not the only one grappling with this issue. In Washington state, the number of teenagers giving birth has started increasing, for the first time since 1991. After years of annual decreases in women ages 15-19 having babies, 2006 marked the first year when that number went up, in both our state and the country as a whole, according to an article in USA Today.
Bristol Palin isn’t running for office, but she had to know that doing big-media interviews would mean that she had to have an answer for some political issues surrounding her teen pregnancy. This is in contrast to Bristol's mother's high-profile position on sex before marriage. Sarah Palin, former candidate for Vice President, is opposed to sex-education that includes discussions of contraceptives.
