Losing it to Uncle Sam might mean losing right to choose

Teenage pregnancy. Whenever it happens, whether it be that girl from high school whose Facebook status now reads "is a happy mom", or Jamie Lynn Spears and her cheating 19-year-old fiance or the Republican vice presidential candidate's daughter, Bristol Palin — it always becomes the talk of the town.

But then there are the others, those who choose to deal with the manner privately and not go through with an unintended pregnancy. Soon, however, there might not be a choice when it comes to unwanted pregnancies; presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and Gov. Sarah Palin are threatening a woman's right to choose what happens to her body and her life.

McCain, according to a statement on his website, “believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned.” Moreover, with three rapidly aging Supreme Court Justices, we might just start seeing more of the same and getting more justices like John Roberts and Samuel Alito on board.

Girls such as Bristol and even Spears had a choice to go through with their pregnancies; having a baby is each woman's own prerogative. But with Bristol already becoming the Evangelical poster child of the pro-life movement, we are neglecting the very issue Sen. Barack Obama told Americans in his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for presidency that we cannot forget: teenage pregnancy.

No matter how McCain, Palin, Bristol or the lucky father-to-be paints Bristol's pregnancy, it was, surely, unplanned. After all, how many Evangelicals do you hear advocating for premarital sex? And, as Palin and her husband Todd said in a statement Monday, “Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned.”

Naturally, McCain and Palin will set aside the issue of premarital sex, and will strive to show that abortion is not the answer to an unplanned pregnancy. What is the answer, though, is federally funded sex education for which abstinence is not the only preventative means discussed. Palin probably now wishes that a bit of the $176 million the federal government spent on abstinence-only sex education went to what she called in 2006 those “explicit sex-ed programs,” i.e., programs that sponsor clinics and the distribution of contraceptives in schools.

Virgin or not, once you do the deed, pregnancy, as Bristol found out, is a possibility. Bristol has the choice to have her baby, but as you're about to lose it to Uncle Sam, think about yours and whose you might be taking away.