Britney Spears' younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears announced that she’s pregnant. This is a girl who’s 16, rich and famous, and is now being held up as "responsible" for taking ownership and deciding to keep her baby.

Why isn’t anyone talking about why she’s pregnant in the first place? “It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected,” Jamie Lynn told Ok! magazine. “I was in complete and total shock and so was [my boyfriend].” She can’t possibly lack knowledge or access to birth control, so why was her pregnancy a shock? If you have sex without protection, you might get pregnant. NOT SHOCKING, right? Granted, she could have had a condom break or something, but that's why Plan B is available over-the-counter.

My beef isn’t with what she—or other girls in her position—decided to do with her pregnancy. But instead of using her situation (and spotlight) to mention the preventability of teen pregnancy, Jamie Lynn holds up abstinence as a reasonable solution for other girls. “I definitely don’t think it’s [premarital sex] something you should do; it’s better to wait,” she said. “But I can’t be judgmental because it’s a position I put myself in.” Jamie Lynn casts premarital sex as the problem when unprotected sex is clearly the issue at hand—thus passing up a perfect opportunity to slip the solution into the dialogue. 

A girl who’s a role model for millions of other young girls shouldn’t be heralded for failing to use contraception. Period.

And MSNBC definitely shouldn’t be running a poll on whether Jamie Lynn will be a better mother than Britney.