Oprah gives Bristol a “chance to recant” her heretical belief system that marriage, sex and childbearing belong together. Don’t you just love how Oprah disses Bristol’s choice for abstinence?!?! If she were “choosing” to abort a baby, Oprah would never allow herself to say, “you know, you may regret that someday.” If Bristol were saying, “I would like to be President of teh US someday,” Oprah would say, “You go, girl.”
Only when a young woman admits that she wants marriage and sex and child-bearing to be linked in one organic package, do the adults try to talk her out of it.
Which tells you that “choice” is not really the issue. The rhetoric of “choice” is a cover, a defense for an action that cannot be defended on its own terms. (cross posted over at the RuthYouth blog. )