Rise in teenage pregnancy rate spurs new debate on arresting it

by Rob Stein, The Washington Post, Jan. 26, 2010

The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering, according to a report released Tuesday.

The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 -- the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation's leading reproductive-health think tank.

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 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."

--snip--

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.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503957.html

I ain't surprised given the rise in joblessness and how state governments value prisons more than public schools. The use of "arrest" in the headline nearly gave me the impression that some states were going to make teen pregnancy a crime in some way. Given that the Sharia punishment (stoning and lashing the woman, erhm, victim) violates the 8th Amendment obviously, I'd think that states would convict the fathers of statutory rape and register them as sex offenders for life.

Still, once again this proves how shallow and worthless it is to teach teens to "just say no". Teenagers are beyond the "just obey the rules" stage in life already, "abstinence experts". This is America, not Iran, for crying out loud! Go read some child development books and read studies like Henry Waxman's. I suppose the reason why the anti-sexuality movement keeps making noise is because it's just been an epic failure.

Maybe Bristol Palin can edjukate us on this topic.

just say no til marriage.

BUT WE NEED TO TEST DRIVE CARS!