Teen abstinence activist Bristol Palin decided against appearing on a panel as part of Washington University’s Sexual Responsibility Week after an uproar erupted at the St. Louis college, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.
The invitation by the school’s Student Health Advisory Committee to the 20-year-old Teen Abstinence Ambassador drew the ire of abortion activists and students alike — who were outraged by the $20,000 spent by the school for a panel which featured Palin.
Several Facebook pages were created advocating that the school uninvite the daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Even Hollywood got involved.
“Private Practice” star Kate Walsh, a member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, entered the fray Wednesday, urging her Twitter followers to protest Palin’s possible appearance.
“Welcome to the Idiocracy!…please join students at Wash.U. to boycott Bristol Palin’s speech on abstinence. What does she know about college or abstaining?” Walsh tweeted.
The former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant became pregnant at the age of 17 and is a single mother to a two-year-old boy, Tripp.
The Missouri university and Palin ultimately decided “that the message that they intended on sharing would be overshadowed by controversy,” according to a statement released by the university.
Scott Elman, president of the advisory committee which issued the invitation, added that the decision to cancel Palin’s participation was “100 percent mutual.”
Instead of Palin, the panel will now feature Dr. Katie Plax, who is head of adolescent medicine and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine.