Palin on Contraception

As the media continues to dig deep in order to find out what Sarah Palin thinks about, well, anything, the LA Times hits upon a surprising revelation: Sarah Palin supports contraceptive education.

In a widely quoted 2006 survey she answered during her gubernatorial campaign, Palin said she supported abstinence-until-marriage programs. But weeks later, she proclaimed herself "pro-contraception" and said condoms ought to be discussed in schools alongside abstinence.

"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues," she said during a debate in Juneau.
[...]
Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said the governor stands by her 2006 statement, supporting sex education that covers both abstinence and contraception.
[...]
Palin's statements date to her 2006 gubernatorial run. In July of that year, she completed a candidate questionnaire that asked, would she support funding for abstinence-until-marriage programs instead of "explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?"

Palin wrote, "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."

But in August of that year, Palin was asked during a KTOO radio debate if "explicit" programs include those that discuss condoms. Palin said no and called discussions of condoms "relatively benign."

"Explicit means explicit," she said. "No, I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don't have a problem with that. That doesn't scare me, so it's something I would support also."

Amazingly, this puts her considerably to the left of both John McCain and the Republican Party platform. But it is good to hear, and since I haven't exactly been Palin's biggest fan*, I felt it was worth pointing out. (H/T: Jim Lindgren).

* If anything, I've been understating how much I dislike this woman. I've been weighing this whole weekend writing a post entitled "Why I Hate Sarah Palin" -- and while there are many politicians I dislike, some quite strongly, there are very few politicians I would say I "hate". But Governor Palin's willingness to lie shamelessly on camera over and over again (the bridge to nowhere "opposition") and, more importantly, the way she seems to positively revel in attacking her opponents, are precisely the sort of things which inevitably set me off. Palin's speeches crest at her lows -- when she's at her most biting, her most vicious, her most mean-spirited, and her most cruel. That is the type of politics that made me decide long ago I never wanted to go into politics. It might make her effective. But to me, it also makes her loathsome.