Rural hubris

I meant to write about this last month and it slipped by.

Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert (R) announced that her seventeen year old son had knocked up a girl. 

The thirty six year old representative of the third district recounted the story publicly during a Moms for America event last month, saying she and her husband Jayson are "so excited to welcome this new life into our family."

He asked her, "Didn't you make granny a 36-year-old granny?" To which she responded, "Yes, I did."

Tyler then said that him becoming a father at 17 is "hereditary" – warranting some laughs from the audience.

Boebert, who is against abortion, went on to explain "rural conservative communities" are special because the teenage girls who become pregnant in those areas tend to "value life."

"If you look at teen pregnancy rates throughout the nation, well, they're the same, [in] rural and urban areas. However, abortion rates are higher in urban areas. Teen moms' rates are higher in rural conservative areas, because they understand the preciousness of a life that it's about to be born," she stated.

The announcement comes a few days after Boebert received criticism for speaking out against funding "comprehensive sex education" in public schools during a Conservative Political Action Conference event.

I found this sort of tragic and ironically funny. Conservatives like to rail about young black women having babies out of wedlock. But when it happens in rural, white communities it is somehow okay. Precious. Even virtuous. Her reasoning might be a little askew.

A 2012 study by Physical Review B (PRB) found that teen girls of lower socioeconomic status in regions of high-income inequality were more likely to get on with the pregnancy rather than seeking an abortion.

A 2019 study published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) suggested that teen birth rates in rural areas might be higher than in urban areas because teens might be vulnerable to "local conditions that limit unintended pregnancy management options." Teens living in rural areas often face large geographical barriers to access abortion providers—a difficulty that's been exacerbated by a proliferation of abortion bans in Republican-led states.

As another writer pointed out, when minorities seek health, we call it welfare. When white people seek the same funds, it is termed assistance. Here is Boebert at a CPAC conference:

Colorado Republican Rep Lauren Boebert bombastically told the US federal government during the CPAC conference to “leave us the hell alone”.

“We’re here to tell the government: ‘we don’t want your benefits, we don’t want your welfare’,” she said on Saturday night. “Don’t come knocking on my door with your Fauci ouchie – you leave us the hell alone.”

But the four counties in Colorado with the highest unemployment rate in the state are all in Ms Boebert’s district, meaning many of her constituents are reliant on government support. 

The hypocrisy is rich but then again, it's not like anybody is listening. Funny that Boebert grew up collecting welfare in her Republican household. It was okay then but not now. Or maybe it was just assistance?

I know that it is probably just me but I don't think we should be encouraging young kids who can't support themselves to have children, whatever their color or geographical status. I don't feel like supporting them with my taxes. And these rural teens tend to do what their mommies did and you get an endless cycle of Daisy Mays swallowing watermelon seeds and growing out of their dadgum britches.

I do think it is sad when it happens generation after generation like in Boebert and Palin's case. Boebert dropped out of school when she got knocked up, but ultimately passed a G.E.D in 2020, seventeen years later. And they elected this person. We should not be encouraging teen pregnancy.

The CDC also reports the impact that teen pregnancies have on the girls' lives: only 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma before the age of 22. Among women who don't give birth in their teens, this number goes up to 90 percent.

A 2008 study mentioned by the CDC also studied the impact of teen pregnancies on the children. The offspring of teen moms are more likely to have lower school achievement or drop out of school; have more health problems; be incarcerated in their teens; and give birth as teenagers themselves.

Perhaps they need to keep those sex education classes back in Colorado because the kids are obviously figuring it out. Mix in a little contraception while it is still available. If there is one thing I have learned it is that dumb parents tend to raise dumb kids. And some of them even get elected.

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Missouri lawmaker suggests 12-year-olds should be able to get married.

...Moon maintained in his video statement that the one example he cited of 12-year-olds getting married as a result of a pregnancy, and having a strong union, was possible because of God.

“Tragic circumstances such as these can only be overcome through one avenue, the grace and mercy of God,” he said.