An OB/GYN examines the Palin pregnancies
By Jennefer Russo, M.D.
First, let’s get one thing straight. I agree with Barack Obama that a politician’s family life should be off limits to the press and to criticism. But if that politician has put her children in the public eye and used them as an example of how American families should be modeled, I think she has permitted us to discuss them when they stray from her example.
Sarah Palin has stated in the past that she would oppose abortion for her daughter, even if she had been raped. A daunting statement, given that in her home state of Alaska the rate of rape is over twice the national average and the rate of child sexual abuse is six times the national average. Now her daughter is supposedly five months pregnant and going to “keep her child”, which I assume means that she is not going to give that child up for adoption.
Some statistics:
· By age 19, 70% of teens have engaged in sexual intercourse
· The annual pregnancy rate is approximately 8 percent among women aged 15 to 19
· Nearly a third of these pregnancies end in abortion, but almost 60 percent result in a live birth.
(Source: The Alan Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health”, 09/2006.)
Sarah Palin supports abstinence-only education, which has been demonstrated to be harmful to young people, depriving them of the information they need to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Per Planned Parenthood:
“The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is more than twice that of many European countries that advocate comprehensive sex education and accessible contraceptive services. Despite that grim reality, more and more money is allocated each year for irresponsible, misleading abstinence-only programs. The Bush Administration has been a vocal advocate of expanding abstinence-only programs, which teach that abstinence is the only acceptable behavior for adolescents, leaving out vital information that includes discussions on contraception, safe sex practices, sexual orientation and abortion. Though studies show more than half of teenagers between the ages of 15-19 are sexually active (Moore, Driscoll and Lindberg, A Statistical Portrait of Adolescent Sex, Contraception and Childbearing, 1998), more than $100 million is spent by the federal government in programs that censor information about safe-sex practices.”
Bristol Palin, the daughter of a woman who opposes abortion and sex education, is now the prime example of the result of these attitudes. A pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old who is likely still in high school is now going to be forced into motherhood as a result of the ignorance of her own mother. A girl who missed 8 months of high school last year because she had mono. Apparently the Palin’s have a high regard for education.
There is speculation that the new pregnancy may be a cover-up for Bristol’s previous delivery of Sarah Palin’s child, Trig, who was born in April. As an obstetrician/gynecologist, I would like to speak to those rumors. Sarah Palin’s story, and the media’s story, is that she delivered this child at 8 months after breaking her bag of water during a public event. The rumors state that Palin broke her bag of water, gave a speech a half-hour later, and then took a plane from Texas to Alaska to deliver the baby. This scenario is nearly impossible. Sarah Palin has had four previous babies. In my experience of delivering thousands of babies, I would predict that Sarah Palin would deliver within a couple of hours. She would likely have had rapid labor and delivered her baby during the speech or delivered the baby on the plane.
On the other hand, if her story is somehow true, it implies a total disregard to the life of her baby. Almost every woman, except for maybe one addicted to drugs, understands that she will soon deliver when her water breaks. When she has had four other babies, she understands the speed of her own labor. She would likely be starting to have contractions during that speech. If she had indeed not gone into labor, she could have developed a severe infection, or the baby’s umbilical cord could have prolapsed, leading to decreased oxygen flow to the baby. If she had delivered in the plane, she would have been delivering a premature baby with Down’s syndrome (which involves a higher risk of cardiac defects) without the assistance of emergency medical personnel. The baby therefore had a high risk of death, which Palin definitely would have known.
From my experience as an obstetrician, I have a very hard time believing this story. Either the story about her labor and delivery is a lie, or Sarah Palin is a dangerously negligent mother. So which is it? What are they up to? In saying that her daughter, Bristol, is now five months pregnant, they seem to be trying to cover up the parenthood of the previous child. There will be nothing to cover up when the baby is born “late” because her daughter is really only currently three months pregnant, unless they induce delivery of a premature infant to perpetuate the ruse.
This disaster should finally expose the doublespeak of the Republican political machine. Again, I would generally agree with Senator Obama that private life is off limits in political life. But not when the candidates presume to dictate American citizens' personal life with their own beliefs. Then their hypocrisy is fair game.
