Bill Cassidy is a Republican Louisiana Senator who was adamant about “abstinence-only” sexual education being taught in schools. Now, he has publicly announced that his 17 year old daughter is pregnant. He expresses that he and his wife will be welcoming their new grandchild into the family with open arms and will be supporting their daughter. While this is nice, one can’t help but consider that his daughter is now part of the statistics that he thought following his views would prevent.
In 2014, he was a co-sponsor of the Abstinence-Only Reallocation Act, which would provide more money to schools that taught only abstinence rather than educating teens about safe sex as well. The state of Louisiana is one of the major states that is all about abstinence as the only form of birth control for kids. Curiously, this state also has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate present in the United States.
Many studies have shown that abstinence-only education does not help prevent teen pregnancy at all. Teens will do what they want to do regardless.
Cassidy, soon before his daughter revealed her pregnancy, was vocally very against the contraceptive mandate that is a part of Obamacare; this mandate requires that the majority of insurance plans cover birth control. Even after he has stated publicly that his daughter was pregnant, he still continues to vocally oppose Obamacare. It would seem to many people that he does not understand the connection between schools following his philosophies and teens becoming pregnant.