Teen Pregnancy on the Rise. I Say, Prevention Starts NOW.
Teen pregnancy has risen for the second time in two years, after a fourteen year decline, according to new statistics available from the National Center for Health Statistics. After a low in 2005 of less than 40 births per thousand girls aged 15-19, the number had climbed by 2007 to 42.5 births per 1000 teen girls. To put it another, rather stunning way, in a high school with 500 girls, that’s 21 babies each year.
Statisticians aren’t willing to call this two-year rise a “trend” yet. Apparently, the rule of thumb is that it takes three years to make a trend. But many are speculating that it will prove to be one and many are pointing fingers about the cause. Suspect number one? Abstinence-only education.
I freely admit to being very persuaded by that hypothesis. Let’s face it, whether they ought to or not, whether we want them to or not, whether we tell them not to or not, roughly half of teens are having sex. That’s a lot of kids playing Russian roulette with their health and with pregnancy if we don’t also provide them with plenty of education about sex, health and reproduction, and offer them bushels of free and easy condoms.
When I read or hear stories about teen sexuality and pregnancy, my automatic response is to dig up It’s Not the Stork and read it again to my four-year old daughter. Four may seem for some to be too early for sex ed, but my philosophy is that if we start now, when the topic does not include my volatile anxiety about actual romantic partners and possible sexual activity, talking about it later (and probably sooner than I think) will be all that much more natural when the subject is fraught with immediate practical importance.
What’s your theory about the rising teen birth rate? And what, if anything, do you do to prepare your children for the world of sexuality in their tender years, before they really enter it?
See also:
This what I told my daughter (her already knowing about sex)
I love you so much but you need to take care of youre self and your body HAVING SEX ? WELL YOU CAN GET PREGNANT GET AN STD OR EVEN WORSE CAN KILL YOU AND MOM CANT GO TO THE PHARMACY GET YOUR LIFE BACK!
Put the pitchforks down, please. Of course that is not the only talk we had and I was laughing when I wrote it. I did not know the angry mob was going to take it so literally. Our point to the discussion that we had with my stepson was to explain the importance of protecting himself and not being too trusting. Can some young girls effectively and responsibly take the pill? Sure. Do some screw it up and not realize the importance of time and no antibiotics while in thier invincible years? Sure. He needs to be proactive and protective. That was the point. Not to insult his future partners intelligence. Sheesh!
I believe in age-appropriate sex education, starting from day one. When kids are very young, that means the proper name for genitals, and the biological differences between boys and girls, and the importance of good touch vs. bad touch… then as they get older, introducing the “where babies come from” talk, and so forth. I think kids get squicked out when you spring “the talk” on them when they’re teens if you haven’t laid the groundwork for discussion all along, and that age-appropriate sexual education can reduce the embarrassment of discussing intercourse when kids get older.
I LOVE that you’re starting teen pregnancy prevention with your kid in utero, Femme Nikita!
Wow Twyla… all girls who say they’re on the pill are lying or don’t understand the importance of taking it properly? I do agree that no birth control method, save abstinence, is 100% foolproof, but your comment is insulting to intelligent young women who decide they want to be sexually active but also responsible about their choice. I’d sooner be honest with my son (who is still in utero) and tell him that even when used properly, the pill is only 92-99.7% effective, which leaves a lot of wiggle room for a mistake. And, the pill is only effective against preventing pregnancy and not other forms of sexually transmitted diseases. I’d also tell him that even if SHE’s being honest about her sexual history, those she’s been with before may not have been honest with her. I’d also offer to him that any infection that you can get in your vagina or penis you can also get in your anus or throat, so anything with “sex” in the title should be treated with equal weight, and again, while dental dams and condoms can help to prevent the risk of transmission, abstinence is the only 100% foolproof method of avoidance, or both of them submitting to a thorough testing for STI’s before engaging in sexual activities (which, if my son was responsible enough to do, I’d be very proud, even if I’d prefer he be abstinent until marriage). I’d rather give him the facts about the various birth control methods as opposed to telling him that girls are either liars or ignorant.
I agree completely with Twyla. I believe that teens should try to wait. They should also be educated in birth control and the fact that it doesn’t always work (which is why the pill is only 99% effective when taken correctly). Parents also need to step up and talk to their children. It isn’t always an easy subject to bring up, but if you don’t want to be a grandparent before you should be, it needs to be addressed.
I was kind of thinking about that as I was reading this stuff, actually, Karen. (I know I played back into it too, but I did wonder about it.) Because I was thinking that if there were 21 babies born in a high school with 500 girls, there must actually be considerably more pregnancies happening than that. And I’d be curious to know the pregnancy versus birth rate, in fact. One thing some obnoxious commenters said over at the Washington Post piece was that it was all minorities having these “illegitimate” babies. And I was remembering that when I was in high school, there was about one pregnant girl per year and it was always a Black or Latina girl. But I knew about a half-dozen pregnancies that were terminated by white girls in each of those years too. And it made the brown girls look “loose” because they wore their sexuality on their bodies and the white girls didn’t.
There are some really big, unstated assumptions in this piece. The biggest one is that increased births (actual data) come from increased pregnancies (title and first sentence). That is only true if the abortion rate is constant or increasing or if the abortion rate is decreasing faster than the pregnancy rate.
Well, as the mother of a son, I plan to teach him that he should wear a condom because he respects himself and his partner, not because he thinks girls on the pill are irresponsible liars. (He should wear a condom if his partner is a guy, too, obviously.)
We have the next book in that series, Shannon, and it’s been a great resource. We started the conversations very early but the kids are at an age where they get a little more nervous about some of their questions, and for our family, having a book around makes it easier for them to get information on their own terms. But we do keep embarrassing them by bringing up the subject on our own.
Planned Parenthood has some great resources for parents, including parents of young children, at:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/parents-4412.htm
Scarlateen is a great resource for teenagers, but I’m thinking age 14 and up (which means my kids will probably go looking for it at 12, right?)
http://www.scarleteen.com/
I think there are other factors to consider. I don’t think it is only the school’s fault. I think parents don’t give thier children boundries and rules and discipline. I think these things start early.
That being said, I do believe in abstinence teaching followed up by education about disease, pregnancy, prevention and respect.
I am also a little tired of blaming the education system for everything. Parents need to suck it up and have these talks at home with thier kids. Why are expecting a public school health class to do parenting for us? We have many discussions with our middle schooler about what is and is not appropriate. We even had the “if she said she is on the pill, she is lying or probably does not understand the importance of taking it properly” talk. That is a parent’s job.
At the teen mom home I work at most of our residents were not in school when they got pregnant. School would not have saved them.
lol, i was technically included in that statistic. in actuality, I had been out of high school for 2-ish years, and i was engaged, and my daughter was very much planned. but since i was only 18 (a month shy of 19) I was probably thrown in there.
I tend to agree with you on the age. luckily i still have about 2.5 years until she is 4, but i will be talking to her about it from an earlier age. for one, i agree with your suggestion that it will be more natural when itcomes up later. and also, i know that it will be easier to talk to her about it at 4 when she will be more likely to actually listen to me. rather than when she is older, i know i didnt really listen to the talk my parents gave me, so i dont expect that she will either.