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Abstinence Backer Bristol No Hypocrite

Media attacks miss the point: she's a 'natural messenger'

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted May 8, 2009 10:33 AM CDT

(Newser) – Bristol Palin has gotten a media drubbing for hypocrisy in her new role as abstinence advocate—but such attacks are wholly undeserved, writes Nancy Gibbs in Time. The “true hypocrisy,” one could say, was at the Republican convention, which portrayed a falsely simple happy-ending message. In fact, “life is much messier” than that: Bristol’s path from “sinner” to ambassador is representative of reality.

Bristol’s main message was chiefly about teen parenthood: “It is hard, and exhausting, and bittersweet” when what’s normal is “hovering just out of your reach.” And on abstinence, “Bristol has been right all along,” Gibbs writes, both when she called it unrealistic, and in her current push for kids to postpone sex, but use contraception if they’re having it. “This message isn’t hard,” Gibbs concludes. “It just isn’t as tidy as Just Do It or Just Say No.”

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Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, arrives for an event to promote National Teen Pregnancy Awareness Day on Wednesday in New York. (AP Photo)

Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, poses for photographers on the red carpet during an event to promote National Teen Pregnancy Awareness Day on Wednesday in New York. (AP Photo)

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Bristol Palin, in all her complexity as target and role model, sitting there with the beautiful baby she wishes hadn't been born for another 10 years, is a perfectly natural messenger. - Nancy Gibbs

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 8 comments

Alexandria

May 9, 2009 3:49 AM CDT

Hind sight 20/20, eh Bristol? Next time listen during Sex Ed and wear a condom, or better yet, don't have sex until you're ready to accept the consequences.

Shannonals

May 8, 2009 9:01 AM CDT

I think you people are straying from the article, it is about the hypocrisy of Bristol Palin, not how Govenor Palin failed as a parent. It's well known that Govenor Palin failed to parent her child, and yes, birth control should have been discussed between Mother/Daughter when they had, "the talk", but the fact of the matter is that Brisol Palin is the last individual to be a figurehead for abstinence.

Robert_Dada

May 8, 2009 6:35 AM CDT

I'm no Spears family fan but when Jamie Lynn Spears got pregnant out of wedlock, the conservative media (pervert O'Reilly in particular) was skewering her and the family's values. I guess if your vagina gets the Limbaugh seal of approval, you can do no wrong and earn no criticism.

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Abstinence Backer Bristol No Hypocrite