Teen Pregnancy Increased In The Past Few Years
Posted by: Jessica Wakeman
Filed in:
news
8:20AM, Monday July 20th 2009
“16 And Pregnant”: it’s not just an MTV reality show, it’s also America’s scary reality! A Centers for Disease Control report just came out which discovered teen pregnancy increased in recent years. Teen birth rates rose during 2006 and 2007, after having decreased from 1991 to 2005.
More scary news is the number of AIDS cases in young men. CDC data shows that between 1997 and 2006, the number of men ages 15 to 24 with AIDS increased, as well. [ABC News]
One possible culprit for this bad news? I blame abstinence-only education, which teaches children little about sex, including how to use contraception. CDC data also showed, after analyzing data from 2002 to 2007, that 1/3 of teens did not learn about birth control in school before age 18.
Abstinence-only education picked up speed during the Clinton presidency, but Bush strongly supported it when he was in office. In fact, back in 2002, when he proposed increasing federal spending on abstinence-only education, President Bush told reporters, “‘Abstinence is the surest way, and the only completely effective way, to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease.’’ Well, no, it’s not.
Shame on all of those politicians who think not teaching young adults about sex will keep them from getting pregnant or catching STDs. Not working out so well, is it?
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VannaMarie
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 09:04 am: [report]
Ha ha… Funny that the CDC - Center for Disease Control - is producing reports on teen pregnancy…
_jsw_
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 09:20 am: [report]
“Abstinence is the surest way, and the only completely effective way, to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease.”
Actually, that’s true.
It’s also true that having a vast personal fortune is the surest way to ride out a long recession. Some people have vast personal fortunes. Some people practice abstinence.
But it’d be nice if we based policies and law on reality, not naive hopes.
retro chic
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 09:50 am: [report]
I agree Abstinence Only ed deals in theory, not practice, but, out of the corner of its mouth also says, “but condoms break, BC pills fail, accidents happen,” (a far more dangerous message when dealing with actual teens). So the message of having *protected* sex isn’t an option either. What’s left – but the lowest common denominator in their misguided equation of humans, not theories – unprotected sex.
Any clinician will tell you the best BC is the one that is *actually* used as directed consistently. That applies to Abstinence or BC. Even their mothers will say almost all “accidents” are avoidable. They can happen, just not as often as some would have others believe. Abstinence Only ed is a total fail.
bogart4017
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 10:00 am: [report]
Thats that age where nothing can happen to you. It only happens to other people. They are not smart enough yet to realize unprotected sex is russian roulette.
powplz
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 10:04 am: [report]
@jsw - yep. just because abstinence itself works doesn’t mean abstinence-only education does too.
metricula
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 10:34 am: [report]
@jsw Another spot-on observation.
I think a lot of teens hear that condoms and other bc are not totally effective, etc and figure, “What’s the point?” and go unprotected.
Teens are often poorly educated on sex and bc by their parents and schools when they are in high school but when they get to college the health centers have a bowl of condoms.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great there’s a bowl of condoms. But we pretend that anyone under the age of 18 isn’t a sexual being but suddenly when they’re a legal adult we’re like, “Just kidding! We’ve totally unprepared you for adult sexual relationships so have fun with your gonorrhea!”
I guess the point is that the government official preaches abstinence until marriage to teens but not unmarried young adults. It’s like a lie they tell you until you turn 18.
I’m really proud of some of the college health center sex education programs. They can be very effective.
Unfortunately, for some girls, college is too late for good sex education.
LayD
wrote on July 20 2009 @ 12:42 pm: [report]
Studies have shown that Abstinence-Only eductaion does NOT decrease sexual activity in teens but it DOES increase the probablity that they will not use protection since they weren’t taught it. So hopefully Obama and other policy makers will wisen up, quit lying to themselves, and teach all teens to use bc no matter when they have sex, whether they wait until marriage or do it behind the bleachers.