7
The Percent age of 15-to 19-year-olds who became pregnant between 2005 and 2006, the report found.

 

According to The Washington Post, "Teen pregnancy has long been one of the most pressing social issues and has triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control."

 

The Statistics are in your face! Abstinence only education is a "waste of money". You are spending money to make sure children are not having sex, when the irony is they are having more sex!  Maybe if you educated them on contraceptives, how to be in a productive relationship, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases we would see a decline in unintended pregnancy and STDS.

I think people have this notion that if you teach "Comprehensive Sex Education" you are praising sex. It's not true.

What I think:

The main goal is to make sure young adults have the correct medical information and tools needed to be in healthy relationships and be educated about their bodies so they can make the decision that is best for them when it comes to sex.

Information Provided By:  Advocates for Youth:

Characteristics of Effective Sex Education

Experts have identified critical characteristics of highly effective sex education and HIV/STI prevention education programs. Such programs:

1. Offer age- and culturally appropriate sexual health information in a safe environment for participants;
2. Are developed in cooperation with members of the target community, especially young people;
3. Assist youth to clarify their individual, family, and community values;
4. Assist youth to develop skills in communication, refusal, and negotiation;
5. Provide medically accurate information about both abstinence and also contraception, including condoms;
6. Have clear goals for preventing HIV, other STIs, and/or teen pregnancy;
7. Focus on specific health behaviors related to the goals, with clear messages about these behaviors;
8. Address psychosocial risk and protective factors with activities to change each targeted risk and to promote each protective factor;
9. Respect community values and respond to community needs;

"The decline in teen pregnancy has stopped -- and in fact has turned around," said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group in New York that conducted the analysis. "These data are certainly cause for concern."

LIfetime Movie Networks premiered it's new move, " Teen Pregnany Pact",which focused on the 7 girls from MA that "supposedly" made a pact to get pregnant at the same time. According to critics and sources from the small town, many said the pact did not exist, that it was just "coincidence" that all the girls were pregnant at the same time.

Many think that lifetime "tip-toed" around the subject of Teen Pregnancy in the new movie. I watched the movie, but it wasn't really what I expected. "Pregnancy" was a fantasy land for the young girls and any other aspiration, such as college and career, didn't stand a chance in the minds of these young girls.

What does that say?

The move was based on True accounts and the Pregnancy scares that hit a small town in MA in 2008. But, does it paint a good picture of the conditions of our country when it comes to Teen pregnancy. Are young girls in a "fantasy land about sex"? Are we truly educating them on the consequences and other options out there for them besides becoming a mother at a young age?

Contraceptives was brought up by a Liberal Nurse, but was quickly shut-down by the conservative mothers. Inevitably her daughter was one of the 7 that ended up pregnant.

The abortion rate also inched up for the first time in more than a decade -- rising 1 percent -- intensifying concern across the ideological spectrum. "

"The cause of the increase is the subject of debate. Several experts blamed the increase in teen pregnancies on sex-education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence. Others said the reversal could be due to a variety of factors, including an increase in poverty, an influx of Hispanics and complacency about AIDS, prompting lax use of birth control such as condoms. "

Yes, you read the ending correctly..." An Influx of Hispanics"....No comment...

"Now we know that after 10 years and over $1.5 billion in abstinence-only funding, the U.S. is lurching backwards on teen sexual health," said James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, a Washington advocacy group.

According to The Washington Post, "Supporters of abstinence programs, however, said the findings provided powerful evidence of the need to continue to encourage delayed sexual activity, not only to avoid pregnancy but also to reduce the risk for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases."

The rate at which U.S. teenagers were having sex rose steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, fueling a sharp rise in teen pregnancies and births. That trend reversed around 1991 because of AIDS, changing social mores about sex and other factors, including greater use of contraceptives, which pushed the U.S. teen pregnancy rate to historic lows.

According to The Washington Post, "The U.S. rates still remained higher than those in other industrialized countries."

The abortion rate among teenagers rose 1 percent in 2006 from the previous year -- to 19.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age group, the analysis found. Taking that and miscarriages into account, the analysis showed that the pregnancy rate among U.S. women younger than 20 in 2006 was 71.5 per 1,000 women, a 3 percent increase from the rate of 69.5 in 2005. That translated into 743,000 pregnancies among teenagers, or about 7 percent of women in this age group.

The rate was highest for blacks but increased for all racial groups. Among blacks, the rate increased from 122.7 per 1,000 in 2005 to 126.3. For Hispanics the rate rose from 124.9 per 1,000 women to 126.6. Among whites, the rate increased from 43.3 per 1,000 women to 44.0.

"When birth rates go up and down, it could be the result of kids getting fewer abortions," said John Santelli, a professor of population and family health at Columbia University. "This shows that it's a true rise in pregnancies."

My Thoughts...

So Teen Pregnancy is on the rise. Many organizations and parents are concerned that it wil only get worse in the upcoming years. What can we do? I think that Comprehensive Sex Education is one of the main goals that should be discussed in the coming years. From Statistics presented above and the increasing pregnancy rate daily it is proved that Ab-only programs are not sufficient or effective. Many young adults are chosing to have sex at an early age and many are unaware of birthcontrol, contraceptives, or even Plan B. This frustrates me and helps me realize that sex education is truly needed for student s to understand relationships and the commitment that comes with having a sexual relationship. Organizations like Advocates for Youth and Planned Parenthood make it their goal to inform, educate, and provide substanial support to young people when it comes to making those decisions and being educated about the consequences and joys of being in a sexual relationship. Maybe it's time to stop living in a fantasy land ( look at the Pregnancy Pact for good examples), and start realizing that educating young adults about relationships, contraceptives, and STDs is more effective.

To read more about this article at  The Washington Post, click here.
To learn more about Comprehensive Sex Education, click here.