Prior to the late 60s or 70s, single women who got pregnant were sent away to have their babies in secret, and the babies were generally given up for adoption. You can see this in movies (English & Spanish) of the period.

Today, girls are encouraged to keep their babies. (In Latin America, based on the TV I’ve seen, a woman who gives up her baby for adoption is as or more evil than the woman who aborts.) It no longer matters who the father is or whether the sexual act was consensual. (I remember when you were supposed to choose a mate with care because the father of your future children was importatn)

I must admit that I am a bit surprised that a man of Obama’s age would use that term, but I do not think it inaccurate.

It is probably not healthy for young girls to get pregnant and, given the lack of universal health care and social services in the U.S. (an awful lot of pro-lifers seem to care about babies only before they are born), both mother and child suffer more often than not.

And while he wasn’t even discussing abortion–I can’t help but think we will NEVER solve this abortion disagreement if there are still people around that don’t understand some pregnancies are, in fact, unwanted!

He could have remained neutral – said nothing – and advocated contraception without heaping on the moralism and saying we’re all terrible sinners. That his first instinct was to start getting all puritanical shows what a nasty religious scumbag he is.

He could have. And his very devoutness and willingness to pander to the religious is one of the reasons that I’m not a giant Obama fan (I like him well enough and I’ll vote for him in the fall, but he definitely isn’t my first choice). But he is a religious person, or at least, he plays one on tv, and so he does believe that. And let’s face it, he knows his audience well.

I’m not saying that I like his answer all that well, but it is better than I would have hoped from a mainstream presidential candidate.

Keep in mind that Obama is also the result of an unplanned teenage pregnancy.

I read this book “The Girls Who Went Away be Ann Fessler”. This book was full of stories of unwed pregnant girls and women who were sent away for the crime of getting pregnant. Some of the stories talked about how the hospital staff treated them like shit while they were in labor (some were refused medication). A few of them got a completely different treatment a couple of years later when they were back in the delivery room, but married.

“Children are a joy and blessing” my ass. If you have those children out of wedlock, these people will be sure to frequently make you feel quite the opposite.

He’s also openly saying some very nasty and revanchist things: casual sex is wrong, abstinence should be encouraged, having sex which isn’t properly sanctioned by his ethical code is a “mistake”, people should be taught “values and morals” so they can avoid this. Fuck him.

Yes, he is. It’s also the mainstream view in this country. He doesn’t seem to be all that far out of the mainstream as far as him own ideas go, and even if he was, he’d get skewered if he actually said that sex is wonderful and good and everyone who wants to, including teenagers, should be having it.

You and I (and most commenters on liberal, feminist blogs) might think so and might wish for a politician who has the ovaries/balls/spine to actually say so in public, but most of the country, and even most democrats, wouldn’t stand for that. And as he’s running for president of the entire country, he’s not going to shoot himself in the foot on that one.