Chicks Coming Home to Roost
Don't you love it when the Republicans decide that an issue like a girl's pregnancy, who happens to be the teenage daughter of the V.P. candidate, is a private issue?

OK, fine. The family's off limits. Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, the Republican V.P. nominee, is pregnant, and intends to have the baby and marry the father. That we know. But if that's not our business (even though conservatives feel just fine about telling women what to do with their bodies, and their lives), let's focus on the policy of these hypocrites, sorry, candidates.

According to Salon.com, Sarah Palin stood against any funding for sex ed in Alaska. (How'd that work out?)

John McCain has never really been able to discuss the issue of sex, STDs, AIDS or pregnancy without squirming or seeming completely uneducated on the topic. According to the same story:

In 2006, McCain joined fellow Republicans in voting against a Senate Democratic proposal to send $100 million to communities for teen-pregnancy prevention programs that would have included sex education about contraceptives.

In 2005, McCain opposed a Senate Democratic proposal that would have spent tens of millions of dollars to pay for pregnancy prevention programs other than abstinence-only education, including education on emergency contraception such as the morning-after pill. The bill also would have required insurance companies that cover Viagra to also pay for prescription contraception.

Sure, it's a private matter. But when your private beliefs affect all pregnant teens, it's all of our business.