Did you know that today is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day?
According to the website for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy:
Why a National Day? Since the early 1990s, the teen pregnancy rate has declined 38 percent and the teen birth rate has declined 32%. In fact, few social problems have improved quite as dramatically over the past decade plus. The most recent news on this front, however, has not been positive. According to data released in March 2009 by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the U.S. teen birth rate increased for the second year in a row since 2005. These increases follow 14 years of continuous decline in the teen birth rate. That is, after declining 34% between 1991 and 2005, the teen birth rate has now increased 5% between 2005 and 2007.
So what can we do to help prevent teen pregnancy?
We can give teens the right information
In an op-ed, Montana state legislator Teresa Henry explains:
In April 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a study that showed federal abstinence-only-until-marriage programs neither delay the onset of sexual activity in young people nor reduce the number of partners of those who are sexually active.
Abstinence-only-until-marriage "education" denies young people honest and accurate information about contraceptive options. Abstinence-only programs often give false information, like exaggerating condom failure rates and teaching stereotyped gender roles.
Instead, shouldn't we be teaching teens how to be safe?
And if parents are too uncomfortable, and the schools are hindered by abstinence-only funding, maybe we can encourage more creative solutions (nytimes, login required):
"Why do guys think it’s cool to sleep with a girl and tell their friends?"
James Martin, the staff member who has text-line duty this week, is 31, married and the father of a toddling son. He hesitates. How to offer comfort, clarity and hope in just a few sentences? He texts back. "Mostly it’s because they believe that having sex makes them cool," he types, adding, "Most guys outgrow that phase."
The Birds and Bees Text Line, which the center started Feb. 1, directing its MySpace ads and fliers at North Carolinians ages 14 to 19, is among the latest efforts by health educators to reach teenagers through technology — sex ed on their turf.
not a bad start.
We can promote a culture of responsibility
How? Encouraging teens to use contraception if they're going to have sex. Promoting contraception use as the "cool" thing to do.
After all, Cynthia Tucker points out that:
The rate of abortion has dropped over the past three decades, as research has yielded contraceptives that are more convenient and less prone to harsh side effects. But most of these benefits have been reaped by higher-income women. It is among that group that unintended pregnancies have been decreasing. Unplanned pregnancies have increased among poor women, who often find contraceptives expensive and difficult to obtain.
But birth control is also a matter of culture. We live in a society that celebrates sexual freedom but refuses to teach its children that responsibility to protect against unwanted pregnancies (and sexually transmitted diseases) comes alongside that freedom. Popular culture —- even the family TV hour —- is awash in casual sexual encounters and advertisements for remedies for "erectile dysfunction," but Hollywood and Madison Avenue shy away from condoms. It’s no wonder that the U.S. abortion rate is higher than that of many Western European countries that publicly encourage contraceptive use.
How often is there sex (explicit or implicit) in movies or television? How often do we see the characters discussing contraception? Or the consequences of not using it?
Even when there are consequences, how realistic are they? I loved Juno as much as the next person, but I think that kind of happy ending is unlikely in most cases.
In the end, we need to be honest with teenagers
Teens know when adults are being hypocrites. They don't respect it. Isn't it better to treat them like the adults they're about to become? Give them the right information, and let them make their own decisions.
After all, I had a lot more respect for Bristol Palin (because how can you talk about teen pregnancy without her?) when she said:
everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.
than when she said
"Regardless of what I did personally, I just think that abstinence is the only way you can effectively, 100 percent foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy," she said.
EDIT: Accessibility helps, too
As a few people in the comments have pointed out, making sure teens have access to contraception- condoms, the pill, whatever- will help too. Too many teens can't afford them, don't want their parents to find out, or simply don't think it's important it's important enough to bother.
And cheers to the FDA for giving in to science, and allowing 17 year olds to get Plan B without a prescription!