Statutory rape ad campaign launches in Milwaukee

From Pro-Life Wisconsin:

Back in May, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote about an effort by United Way of Greater Milwaukee to reduce teen pregnancy in Milwaukee. The effort involved an ad campaign using Disney-type fairy princesses; the ad campaign was put on hold due to concerns of copyright infringement.

Today, the “Fairytale statutory rape ad campaign” launched at bus stops throughout the city. Read more here. See ad, left.

Eliminating teenage pregnancy is something we’re all in favor of, but mixing United Way, Planned Parenthood, sex ed and Disney princesses into the mix is hardly the solution.

United Way is tied very closely to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (click here for a 2010 pledge form, listing PPWI as a “Community Health Charity”). In addition, United Way and PPWI are members of a “Healthy Youth Alliance,” pushing comprehensive sex ed across Wisconsin. The list of ties goes on and on.

The point is this: United Way refers these young girls to PPWI for treatment or “services.” PPWI has been shown willing to cover up purported statutory rape, sending these young girls right back to their abusers. It’s a vicious circle, rather than a deplorable societal injustice moving toward an end point.

Through its ties to Planned Parenthood, United Way is assisting in the cover-up of statutory rape, exacerbating the problem and allowing it to continue.

Continuing to push “comprehensive” sex ed on young girls starting at age 8, and then wondering why the teenage pregnancy rate is so high, is akin to holding a lighted match next to a piece of paper and then wondering why it catches on fire. If young girls are told it’s OK to have sex with a wink and a nod, and there are cultural factors at play here as well, that’s something an ad campaign can’t fix.

I highly recommend reading this article about teenage pregnancy in urban high schools, titled “Nobody gets married anymore, Mister.” It’s long but worth the read. It will make you think, and wonder where our society is going. Excerpt here:

Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant. Other girls in school want to pat their stomachs. Their friends throw baby showers at which meager little gifts are given. After delivery, the girls return to school with baby pictures on their cell phones or slipped into their binders, which they eagerly share with me. Often they sit together in my classes, sharing insights into parenting, discussing the taste of Pedialite or the exhaustion that goes with the job. On my way home at night, I often see my students in the projects that surround our school, pushing their strollers or hanging out on their stoops instead of doing their homework.