It's a dramatic story.
In Gloucester, Mass., out of a class of 1,200, 17 girls are pregnant or had children this year. Time magazine reported that some of the girls even joined a "pregnancy pact."
What went wrong? What would cause so many teen girls to get pregnant? Is the
'pregnancy pact' story legit?
Apparently, the only question the right is asking is: who's to blame?
The right-wing punditry has, not unexpectedly, rushed to judgment. Some say that the immaturity of these girls underscores their inability to decide what's right for their bodies. Others say Hollywood, Jamie Lynn Spears, and the glamorization of sex are at fault.
But is it possible that Gloucester High School's policy of denying students access to contraception played a role?
The truth is that nobody knows the answers and rushing to any judgment, from either side of the ideological divide, is premature at best.
But here's what we do know: The abstinence-only policy pushed so hard by the Bush administration and the right-wing for years doesn't work.
In 2006, the teen pregnancy rate increased by 3 percent, after steadily declining for the previous 14 years. This increase directly correlates with the increase in abstinence-only education. The teen pregnancy rate had started its decline in the early nineties, and during this time period, an increase in condom use was also reported. But since George W. Bush took office and revamped funding for abstinence-only education, the decline has slowed and recently reversed. What's more, a study earlier this year found that one in four teenage girls has contracted a sexually-transmitted infection (STI).
A growing number of state leaders have seen the light. The Hartford Courant reports:
"A federal tally shows that participation in the [Bush abstinence] program is down 40 percent over two years, with 28 states still in. Arizona and Iowa have announced their intention to forgo their share of the federal grant at the start of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1."
Bureaucratic inconsistencies are driving some states out of the program. But so are poor results, including those in Idaho, where pregnancies among kids aged 15 to 19 rose from 2,396 in 2004 to 2,543 in 2006.
Congress needs to catch up with these state leaders. Despite the program's failure, the House Appropriations Committee recently approved funding for the Bush administration's abstinence-only effort.
For the sake of our kids, it's time for more state leaders to take off their ideological blinders. If abstinence-only education doesn't help prevent teen pregnancies, shouldn't we try programs that do? It's time to move in a new direction. It's time to call on the remaining states to listen to the facts, and reject abstinence-only funding. I would ask all of you who are concerned to sign this petition to theses states' governors, asking them to do what's best for America's youth.