Bristol Palin is freaking out again. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, but in this instance, the single mother partway through her second pregnancy has really outdone herself:

Do you remember what it was like to be a 10 year old? I remember being an unabashed tomboy concerned with playing outside and acing 5th grade. But life isn’t so innocent and carefree for some 10 years old in Washington State. This summer a report came out claiming that some schools in Washington were giving free birth control implants to children as young as 10 years old! These birth control devices are implanted in a girl’s uterus, and all of this can be done without a parent’s consent!

How absurd is her outrage? Let us count the ways.

Her flabbergasted response to the idea that 10-year-olds might be prescribed birth control ignores science that shows more and more girls are hitting puberty earlier and earlier more and more often. IUDs can help tremendously with conditions like endometriosis or extreme cramping, but Palin doesn’t seem to care. Palin also seems blissfully unaware of a disgusting reality — the fact that an estimated 44% of the victims of sexual assault are under the age of 18. If these girls have the ability to get pregnant and face that great a risk of assault, I can’t lie; I’d be all about my daughter having access to birth control. Contrary to what Palin asserts, IUDs actually have far fewer side effects than most other forms of birth control… and far less of a lifelong impact than, ya know, a pregnancy. Nothing she references indicates a lack of parental consent by any of these girls. Even if they did seek out birth control without parental consent, so what? Guess what? They can walk into many clinics and public health departments (with the support of the CDC) and get a whole bunch of condoms for free without their parents consent, too. If they’re going to be having sex anyway, oral contraceptives and IUDs are way more effective that condoms, so more power to ’em. The right-wing report she cites to fuel her rage ignores some really important data. Like the fact that programs like these are incredibly effective at slashing teen pregnancy rates and decreasing the number of abortions they’re so horrified by.

In other words: There’s nothing to get worked up over. This is not the nightmare conservatives think it is.

It’s appalling that someone who’s famous for not using birth control is now telling others to avoid it.

(Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com)



