According to the latest study published by the Guttmacher Institute, the U.S. national teen pregnancy rate has increased by 3% after more than a decade of decline. Data also reveals teen birth rates were up 4% and teen abortion increased 1%.
The Guttmacher Institute (an agency whose mission is advance sexual and reproductive health in the United States and worldwide through an interrelated program of social science research, policy analysis and public education) attributes the increase to a decline in contraceptive use by sexually active teenagers as a result of sex education programs aimed exclusively at promoting abstinence - programs that are prohibited by law (by the Bush Administration) from discussing the benefits of contraception. Research has shown, beyond any doubt, that abstinence-only education programs do not work.
- A national study by Mathematica Policy Research concludes that abstinence-only sex education doesn't keep teens from having sex; and if they choose to have sex, these programs don't affect the likelihood that teens will use a condom.
- Dr. Douglas Kirby, a leading researcher in adolescent health, released a study investigating both abstinence-only and full sex education programs. His results confirmed (once again) that the federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs just DO NOT work. The only programs that resulted in delayed sexual initiation were comprehensive sex ed programs (those that discuss both abstinence and contraception). His study states "there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence, or reduces the number of sexual partners."
Teenagers need accurate information, so they can make informed decisions and must have access to contraception to help increase the likelihood pf preventing an unintended pregnancy.
In response to this report, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights issued the following statement:
"It's not at all surprising that the increase in teen pregnancy coincides with the increase in abstinence-only education programs that value ignorance over knowledge. These programs waste taxpayer money, harm teens, and violate young people's fundamental right to receive scientifically accurate and objective information in order to protect their health, including avoiding pregnancy and STD's."
- Teen Sex Advice: Thinking About Having Sex?
- Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Contraception Decision-Making
- CDC Report: Sexual and Reproductive Health of U.S. Teens
Please Share: Have You Spoken to Your Teen About Birth Control?
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Teen Pregnancy Photo Courtesy of Geoff Manasse/Getty Images
Ms. Stacy,
Your points are well written and you speak the truth. However, there are some factors involved that you don’t mention.
The teen birth rate (TBR) is a function of several dynamics, including poverty, sex abuse, violent homes, and more, and they all play a role in a young girls choice to become pregnant.
But the two main dynamics are the adult birth rate (ABR), which teens follow lockstep, and the economy.
A graph would show 3 lines following the same pattern, rising and falling at almost the exact same times- the ABR, the TBR, and the unemployment rate. The TBR lags just slightly, as it adjusts to social, not personal, factors.
We can predict the TBR in 10 years by knowing just two things- the poverty rate and the ABR. Today’s poverty rate is tomorrow’s TBR. Teen pregnancy isn’t about contraception, because it’s not about sex. It’s about a lack of competing choices. Teens are “pushed” into social corners, and pregnancy is one of the responses.
In short, teen pregnancy is an adult problem, not a teen problem. Only adults can fix it. Shameless and abusive programs like abstinence are a scapegoating tool adults use to keep teens from having sex- not to keep them from getting pregnant.
Rick Machado
Public Speaker on Teen Pregnancy