Cross posted on Amplify
At Frayser High School in Memphis, Tennessee, 90 girls are pregnant or recently gave birth. In Fraser County where the school is located, the pregnancy rate is 26%. Tennessee law requires schools to teach the Family Life Education curriculum, which puts an "emphasis on abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage" and is only taught for a few weeks in 9th grade.
I have seen stories like this over and over again. It is so frustrating to see adults cling to ideological arguments of restricting information in spite of clear evidence that these strategies are not working. Wake up. A 26% pregnancy rate is not a trivial issue, it is a health crisis. It is a crisis for these individuals, as well as for broader society as the costs of teen pregnancy to the taxpayer are enormous. Further, studies show that teens who have a child while in high school have high school drop out rates and are less likely to attend college.
This school district has announced plans to start a new initiative to reduce teen pregnancies. We can only hope that this new approach will include teaching about birth control in all forms, not just abstinence, and that the adults in this situation will start acting like adults and work to address this situation.
Dan Jubelirer is a 2010 Netroots Fellow at Amplify, a youth-driven community dedicated to promoting sexual health and reproductive justice.