FACT: This unfounded rumor has caused plenty snickering among Palin haters, because of the pregnancy of her seventeen year old daughter Bristol. Then the snickers turn into a kind of karmic pity - "If only she'd allowed her daughter to learn about birth control ..."
Almost immediately after her nomination, news outlets began reporting stories similar to this one: Palin Backed Abstinence-Only Education
a more complete answer:
Actually, Alaska schools don’t teach abstinence only, notes the Anchorage Daily News.
The state requires that abstinence be “stressed,” but not to the exclusion of comprehensive sex education, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Wasilla High, where Bristol Palin is a student, teaches [a] soup-to-nuts course, reports Rory of Parentalcation, who lives nearby. “I called up my buddy who has a teenage daughter in school there, and asked him the question. He said they teach the same thing every school does. Don’t do it, but if you do, use birth control … risks … blah, blah, blah.”
Furthermore, Gov. Palin appears to support that policy, reports the Los Angeles Times, though her position has either been nuanced or muddled, depending on your political sympathies.
Palin clarified “explicit,” on a radio debate. Asked 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.”