I'll go ahead and be the bold one who says that Palin's daughter's pregnancy actually DOES apply to the election. Now don't take that the wrong way. I do not think it should be a constant topic of discussion in the media until November (or longer if McCain wins), and I do believe Bristol has a right to privacy over the matter.

However, Palin is known to be a strong supporter of abstinence-only education. Let's just take a look at the statistics. Abstinence-only education is the only type permitted in school systems throughout Texas, and the state spent more than $17 million backing the program. Students are not educated on ways to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but are only told not to have sex. Get real. While it is a very honorable decision to choose abstinence, it is not the choice many teenagers make.

So with all the money Texas invested in this program, federal studies report that 52.9 percent of Texas high school students have had sex compared to the national average of 47.8 percent.
Sounds like that plan really worked...it apparently did for Sarah Palin's daughter, too.

Seriously though, the abstinence-only programs teach the failure rates associated with contraceptives. People don't want to teach students about the positive aspects because they think it is giving them a nod of approval to have sex. Kids are going to have sex no matter what you teach them, so you might as well teach them how to be safer.