Ohio rally: Sarah Palin with daughters Willow and a pregnant Bristol, holding Palin's infant son Trig.

Despite the controversy surrounding John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, and her un-wed 17 year-old daughters teenage pregnancy, many are pretending the children of public figures should be off limits. However, in this case it does raise concern over the competence of Palin’s potential leadership as Vice President. Not because an irresponsible child is a poor reflection on Palin, but because of the policies she supports that would encourage this kind of consequence on all children.

An article by Andrew Stephen in the New Statesman discusses McCain’s choice in Palin, but barely addresses the issue of her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy, which is a very important indicator of her policies as potential Vice President. Palin and McCain are supporters of abstinence-until-marriage sex education, which only teaches young people to abstain from sex. Any young person who opposes this would be deprived of beneficial sex information, and studies show that abstinence programs may lead to unsafe sex practices. It is ironic that a supporter of abstinence sex education is now the mother of a pregnant teenager; a policy she wants for all children that did not work for her own daughter.

This abstinence stance not only fails to gives young people the choice to engage in safe sex, but combined with Palin and McCain’s pro-life stance, the only choice it gives is to have unwanted children, even in cases of rape. Aside from being insensitive and not taking into consideration the psychological and physical effect unwanted pregnancy has on women, it ignores the financial and emotional support many pregnant teenagers lack to raise a child.

The teenage pregnancy of Palin’s daughter is a reflection of how her support of abstinence-only sex educations and pro-life views will put everyones children in danger.