Family Forum / Pregnancy / Pregnancy / September 2008

"Palin Slashed Funding for Teen Moms"

By Paul Kane

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote in her line-item veto changes by hand in
this copy [click on link] of a 2008 spending bill obtained by The
Washington Post.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/palin_slashed_funding_to_h
elp.html

ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential
nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant,
earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state
program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went
through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she
opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin
reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent,
cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix
of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House,
which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide
"young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen
months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change
their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful,
independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for
themselves and their families."

Palin's own daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant and has plans
to wed.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very
quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will
have the love and support of our entire family," Palin said in a
statement released by the McCain campaign. "We ask the media to
respect our daughter and Levi's privacy, as has always been the
tradition of children of candidates."

Earlier today the Associated Press reported that Sen. John McCain
(Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, opposed
funding to prevent teen pregnancies, a position that Palin also took
as governor. "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support,"
she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial
candidates.

Reporters asked McCain in November 2007 whether he supported grants
for sex education in the United States, whether such programs should
include directions for using contraceptives and whether he supports
President Bush's policy of promoting abstinence.

"Ahhh, I think I support the president's policy," McCain said.