Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Baby (Not) On Board! (Unless Mitt Has His Way)

Apparently we "immoral" blue staters are at it again. According to a story in last week's Herald, Gov. Romney believes our teen pregnancy rates are low enough, thank you very much:

Although Massachusetts has one of the lowest teen birth rates in the country, Worcester, Springfield, Holyoke and Pittsfield all saw double-digit increases from 2002 to 2003, according to the latest state statistics.

Pregnancy prevention can include counseling, sex education and sometimes condoms.

Romney vetoed $1 million that would have doubled the money spent on programs to prevent teen pregnancy. The Legislature could override the veto.

A Romney spokesperson did not return a call yesterday, but state public health spokeswoman Donna Rheaume said, "Our teen pregnancy rate is half the national average and we think the amount of funding is sufficient."

It's a shame our governor likes to go around knocking "his" state--currently home to both low teen pregnancy rates and low divorce rates (compared to the rest of the country). I guess our family values are just out of touch with most of America. (Um, that would be the America he wants to lead as president, because he's clearly not too interested in leading this commonwealth.)

By cutting funding to a successful program that helps prevent teen pregnancy, he should have us moving in the national direction in no time! We'll fit right in! (No one wants to be a wallflower, ya' know.)

BTW, I realize this story came out last week, but even though I'm late with it, I wanted to get my druthers in. Get it? Late? <...crickets...>

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Being a fellow blue-stater, but from the great state of Maryland (King of the Big Hair, Gonnorea or Heroin Addiction see: Baltimore), I'd still accept your "well-enough" to our "where we gonna put 'em all" (once again see: Baltimore, DC suburbs). Would it be OK if Romney sent the money this way? We "elected" a Republican!

11:01 AM  
Blogger Alison Rose said...

Uh, yeah, we did that, too. Although I can only think of one person I know well who voted for him. Someone must have, though, because he won. :-)

12:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have terrible teen pregnancy rates here in the UK.

3:13 PM  
Blogger Mr. Liberty said...

I think Mitt's father, George, gave him an inferiority complex when he named him.

What kind of name is Mitt? Did his father (after being brainwashed)want his boy to be a ballplayer?

Or was there something more subtle there, so terribly naughty that I shall stop now.

I'm usually better than this, but I had ice cream for breakfast, and now it won't let me go to sleep.

Joe

4:53 AM  
Blogger Alison Rose said...

Where I lived last, Lubbock, Texas, also has terribly high teen pregnancy rates, despite having a reputation as a conservative, church-going kind of town. There's actually going to be a documentary about it on PBS this coming week, on the P.O.V. series, called "The Education of Shelby Knox." I've been waiting for months to see it and I'll report back when I do.

4:44 AM  

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