The .Plan

Last week, Time magazine reported on an alleged “pregnancy pact”, prompted by an epidemic of 17 pregnant girls at one 1,200-student high school, a spike in the pregnancy rate at 4 times the usual. Subsequent investigation failed to uncover evidence of a “pact”, and the article was more or less retracted. Whether there was or was not a pact seems to be missing the point. Chris Rock, along the lines of his stellar performance in Bigger and Blacker, might wonder out loud why — in light of national data that places pregnancy rates among teenage blacks and Latinas at 70-80 per 1,000 — a thinly sourced story about 17 girls at a largely white high school made the national news at all.

This is the kind of conversation I wish Barack Obama would have with the legions of dreamy-eyed evangelical Christians who think they have found in him a champion of the voiceless (babies) and vulnerable (teenagers), but somehow I doubt that will happen anytime soon. I don’t need for him to suddenly become pro-life overnight; I just want him to admit that abortion is tragic. Is that too much to ask for? Clinton had the balls to do this 3 years ago, but unfortunately she was way ahead of her time. Obama has probably learned from her mistake.