U.S. Teen Birth Rate Up Again
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
news
3:00PM, Thursday March 19th 2009
President Barack Obama has been in office for more than 50 days, but the impact of the previous eight years is still leaving an impression. According to a new report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, 2007 marked the second straight year teen birth rates rose in the U.S. The first year, 2006, ended a 14 year decline. More than 70 percent of Black babies and 51.3 percent of Hispanic babies were born to unmarried women in 2007 and the teen birth rate increased by five percent between 2005 and 2007. Some experts are blaming the increase on the Bush administration’s “abstinence-only” education policy.
Teen birth rates declined in previous years because teens were having less sex and more contraception education, according to Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy advocacy group. Albert added the rates have probably increased for the opposite reason—more sex, less contraception. Jennifer Manlove of Child Trends nonprofit research group agrees. “Two years of increases in the teen birth rate are a wake-up call showing the need to target efforts to help teens delay sexual activity, improve contraceptive use, and delay early and generally unplanned childbearing,” she said.
Now that Obama has helped make birth control pills more affordable and has set up the White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that government considers the impact policies have on women, we’re hoping the teen birth rate starts to decline again.
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CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on March 19 2009 @ 03:46 pm: [report]
Is her name really Jennifer Manlove? That sounds made up at the least, and hilariously lacking credibility at the most.
Chelle
wrote on March 20 2009 @ 07:58 am: [report]
That makes sense. Teens are going to have sex. That’s just human nature. It’s far better to teach them about contraceptives and encourage their use than just say “don’t do it”. I remember being a teenager. They tend to do exactly what adults tell them not to do. It’s called rebelling. But educating them on the consequences of their actions and how to avoid these consequences does help. It gives them the choice of whether or not to do it giving them more freedom in their eyes. I’m grateful I was raised in the period before the whole abstinance craze. It led me to make educated decisions.
retro chic
wrote on March 20 2009 @ 08:17 am: [report]
If the pope and Bush would have taken their pointy condoms off their heads, the world would be in a lot better shape.
Bean's Girl
wrote on March 20 2009 @ 09:48 am: [report]
No one ever gave me “the talk” but, my mom did show me a medical book with a colorful diagram (split in two showing an internal side view of a penis in a vagina) and it still makes me laugh when I think about the look on her face when I said, “Oh my god! I didn’t know it goes inside!” I think I was both shocked and repulsed. She didn’t prepair me or say anything about what she was about to show me either. It worked like a charm. lol good times….