If the US presidential race can be described as theatre, last week’s Democratic National Convention would have been a Broadway hit, with its star candidate Barack Obama and his adorable family in the leading role, and a supporting cast that included the veteran politician and vice-presidential pick Senator Joe Biden. The performance went off without a hitch.With his own nominating convention this week, Republican candidate John McCain hoped to capture at least some of the fanfare from the Obama Show. Instead, he has had to overcome distractions that threatened to spoil the opening act. First, McCain surprised everyone by announcing his vice presidential running mate is Sarah Palin, a previously unknown Alaska governor with little political experience. Then Hurricane Gustav took the stage, narrowly missing an evacuated New Orleans and causing Republicans to delay the start of their convention by a day.

That should have been enough drama for one convention. But the McCain-Palin ticket hit another bump in the political road. And it stems not from the merits of either candidate, but rather from a situation involving Palin’s pregnant and unmarried teenage daughter.

The story dominated the airwaves for the first two days of the convention, although both candidates and a cast of experts pointed out that such personal issues have no place in politics.

Nevertheless, the announcement of Palin’s soon-to-be grandchild is politically relevant, and here’s why: Palin is touted by Republican insiders for her socially conservative credentials, including a strong anti-abortion record. In addition to opposing abortion, on a 2006 questionnaire submitted to gubernatorial candidates, Palin refused support for “explicit sex-education programs”, according to CNN.

While Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol, who promised to marry the father of her unborn child, will undoubtedly have the necessary support system that comes from belonging to a politically-connected family, across the USA many other teenagers with unwanted pregnancies are facing much more difficult situations.

According to the USA’s Center for Disease Control, the country’s teen pregnancy rate has risen for the first time in nearly two decades, to 22 births per 1000 in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available. Low birth-weight deliveries were also up that year.

Other studies show that one in four teenage girls in the USA have a sexually transmitted disease, and 30% of girls become pregnant before the age of 20 years. US teen pregnancy rates are twice as high as in England.

While it is too early to predict a constant upward trend in the country’s teen pregnancy rate, the numbers do call into question the effectiveness of the Bush administration’s policy of promoting and funding abstinence only programs - a trend likely to be continued by the socially conservative McCain-Palin ticket and one likely to be opposed by an Obama-Biden one. 

Democrats have called for an end to federal funding for abstinence-only programmes that oppose teaching teenagers contraception methods. During the past 11 years, these programs have received $1.3 billion in federal funding. Some of these programmes have provided youths misleading or false information, a 2004 congressional analysis found.

Studies also show there is a likely link between teenage birth rates and the number of children living in poverty in the USA.

Unwittingly, the revelation this week is likely to draw yet another stark contrast between the two rival presidential tickets, providing voters with added criteria in evaluating the candidates. Taking a cue from supporters who have urged him to be more outspoken on the abortion issue, Obama on Wednesday launched radio ads in seven swing states attacking McCain and Palin for their anti-abortion platform. The ads say McCain “will make abortion illegal”, and point toward Palin’s even more conservative stance that even victims of rape and incest should not have access to abortions, writes The Politico’s Ben Smith.

Whether Palin or McCain will respond to Obama’s prodding on abortion post-convention remains to be seen. But any larger discussions of teen pregnancy and the merit of abstinence-only programmes are unlikely for now.

David Boddiger

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under US Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.