With New Yorkers wondering about how the next mayor will address job creation, crime control and education reform, what should we make of a candidate who spends her campaign time talking about condoms and morning-after pills for pre-teens?
That’s right. Last week, Chris Quinn announced that as mayor she’d devote herself to improving the official NYC condom. Her campaign pledge comes in response to complaints that the existing (and free) NYC condoms are too small and don’t offer enough variety.
If that weren’t enough, this week she weighed in on the morning-after pill. Maybe it had something to do with the endorsement from Planned Parenthood. Whatever the reason, Quinn floated the idea that girls as young as 11 might be given access to the morning-after pill even without parental sign-off.
“We need to recognize the reality of what’s happening in children’s lives and give them what they need to make the right choices and protect themselves,” she said.
Seriously? If the “reality” is that our 11-year-olds are in need of morning-after pills, well, New York is in far worse shape than anyone imagined.
Today, the city Quinn seeks to run has a public school system in which fewer than a third of its kids are proficient in math and barely a quarter in reading. So when it comes to what 11-year-olds need, high on that list might be candidates with a more serious understanding of the city’s most urgent needs.