Mississippi now has highest teen birth rate - Kids and parenting- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28538524/?GT1=43001)

It seems that the poor and uneducated states win again. And as a whole the U.S. is up from a year ago with teens giving birth. Kids having kids.

Abstinence Only!

Abstinence Only!

Study Casts Doubt on Abstinence-Only Programs

By Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page A02

"A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom...."

"By the end of the study, when the average child was just shy of 17, half of both groups had remained abstinent. The sexually active teenagers had sex the first time at about age 15. Less than a quarter of them, in both groups, reported using a condom every time they had sex. More than a third of both groups had two or more partners."

-- so I guess you can continue to deny reality and think this [expensive] crap works, but kids have access to information. Would you rather they get the information off of the Planned Parenthood site on the internet?

Abstinence Only!

That's easier said than done.

We need to bring shame back. :)

Abstinence Only!

Yeah that has worked real well....right.....

This is obviously pseudo-science drummed up by some societal sponge trying to keep his government money coming in.

What do they mean by 'teen'? What do they mean by 'pregnant'?

What do they mean by 'teen'? What do they mean by 'pregnant'?

This link should be of great help to you:

Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/)

If we don't talk about it, they won't do it!

Ah, come on, there is so much banging going on in every other primetime show that these abstinence programs are a moot point. The best form of birth control? People are going to have to start thinking outside the box on this one. It's a huge problem with a multitude of roots to cut.

Single parents, both parents working full time contributes to teen pregnancy ... A lot of it is lack of parental involvement and supervision. My son's friends get to pretty much run wild with very little adult interaction or checking in.

He's had a few friends spend the night for a few days on end and I remind them constantly to check in with their parents. The parents usually aren't calling to check on them.

Study Casts Doubt on Abstinence-Only Programs

By Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page A02

"A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom...."

"By the end of the study, when the average child was just shy of 17, half of both groups had remained abstinent. The sexually active teenagers had sex the first time at about age 15. Less than a quarter of them, in both groups, reported using a condom every time they had sex. More than a third of both groups had two or more partners."

-- so I guess you can continue to deny reality and think this [expensive] crap works, but kids have access to information. Would you rather they get the information off of the Planned Parenthood site on the internet?


That's easier said than done.


Yeah that has worked real well....right.....

Wow, sarcasm is lost amongst the OKC forumers. :confused:



Here, I'll try again...

Abstinence Only! :woowoo: :yourock: :congrats: :doh:

Wow, sarcasm is lost amongst the OKC forumers. :confused:



Here, I'll try again...

Abstinence Only! :woowoo: :yourock: :congrats: :doh:

I understand what you are trying to say (That abstinence only programs are the way to go). However, they have been proven time and time again that they do not work. When I was in 5-8 grades and we had sex ed classes, we were not allowed to ask questions about sex, how to properly protect ourselves, etc. All we were told was sex is bad, watched a bunch of videos about STDs, and that was it. And guess what, I was having sex by 15. I am not saying that we need to do away with abstinence only programs, they just need to be updated. We need to teach our children that sex at a young age is not good, teach them about the dangers of sex (STDs, pregnancy, etc), but we also need to teach them how to protect themselves if they choose to have sex. Lets face it, no matter how much parental supervision a child has, they WILL find a way (I did)! Thus, they should be educated about all aspects of sex, INCLUDING HOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AND THEIR PARTNER!

I understand what you are trying to say (That abstinence only programs are the way to go). However, they have been proven time and time again that they do not work. When I was in 5-8 grades and we had sex ed classes, we were not allowed to ask questions about sex, how to properly protect ourselves, etc. All we were told was sex is bad, watched a bunch of videos about STDs, and that was it. And guess what, I was having sex by 15. I am not saying that we need to do away with abstinence only programs, they just need to be updated. We need to teach our children that sex at a young age is not good, teach them about the dangers of sex (STDs, pregnancy, etc), but we also need to teach them how to protect themselves if they choose to have sex. Lets face it, no matter how much parental supervision a child has, they WILL find a way (I did)! Thus, they should be educated about all aspects of sex, INCLUDING HOW TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AND THEIR PARTNER!

Thanks for the lecture, but that is exactly opposite of what I'm trying to say. Again, I question fellow forumer's ability to recognize sarcasm.

This is how it went:

Post 1:

Oklahoma ranks #6 in teen pregnancy

Me:

Abstinence Only!

(This is sarcasm - we live in the bible belt where many children are taught that abstinence is the only way, but it obviously doesn't work because of our awesome ranking.)

Good Grief

uh... sorry ... was trying to delete this post.

As a teenager who did get pregnant it honestly does not have anything to do with my parents. My parents would always check in with me and make sure I wasn't getting into trouble. I made my choices and parents in no way could have changed what happened. Most teenagers are doing a great deal behind their parents back and there probably isn't much you could do about it except lock them up in the house.

Thanks for the lecture, but that is exactly opposite of what I'm trying to say. Again, I question fellow forumer's ability to recognize sarcasm.

This is how it went:

Post 1:

Oklahoma ranks #6 in teen pregnancy

Me:

Abstinence Only!

(This is sarcasm - we live in the bible belt where many children are taught that abstinence is the only way, but it obviously doesn't work because of our awesome ranking.)

Good Grief



My bad.... :doh:

I missed the sarcasm and thought you were being serious...

Most teenagers are doing a great deal behind their parents back and there probably isn't much you could do about it except lock them up in the house.

That's true. About all you can do is educate them the best you can, not make things easy for them, and then hope for the best. I was leaving a friend's house several years ago and there was a couple of teenagers on a motorcycle across the street, waiting to enter traffic. The instant they took off and rounded the corner, the girl whipped off her t-shirt to reveal a bikini top and the boy handed her a lit cigarette. There was no doubt in my mind that they knew the exact moment they'd be out of their parent's eyesight.

My bad.... :doh:

I missed the sarcasm and thought you were being serious...

It's cool.

This is obviously pseudo-science drummed up by some societal sponge trying to keep his government money coming in.

What do they mean by 'teen'? What do they mean by 'pregnant'?


This link should be of great help to you:

Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/)

It's not that simple, as I think you probably know. I suspect there is a lot that wasn't taken into account. Some of these teen pregnancy surveys actually count "teens" who are as old as 22 - 24! (something like that - I think they're trying to capture college students). Something else they don't consider is whether these "teens" are married at the time of birth or even at the time of conception. Lots of 18 year olds actually graduate high school, get married, and then get pregnant - in that order. That's adulthood. There's a high percentage of divorce in there, but that's another study.

The societal problem they're really studying is teenage unwed mothers, but several of these haven't actually parsed the data in quite that manner. So yes, it depends on how you define "teen." How you define "pregnant" though? Not sure where that was going...

Well, at least it's real easy to abstain from sexual intercourse while in high school if you have an ugly, humorless face and so are severely lacking in charm and sex appeal.

My GAL kids don't see anything wrong in teen sex (they think it would be weird to abstain). Their parents tend to assume they are going to be doing it anyway and range from giving them birth control to just not thinking about it. Absent internalizing that it is just not a good idea, kids are pretty sneaky and creative. And enthusiastic. A public bathroom Dunkin Donuts near a school where a lot of my kids attend is a popular meeting place.

I'm all for locking up the little brain damaged warts.

I agree, if parents aren't watching them, it happens even earlier and more casually.

As for studies that include 22 - 24 year olds - I'd be surprised at that. Teens pretty regularly means 11 - 19.

Speaking as a two-time teen mom, I don't know if my parents watching closer would have made a difference. The fact is, they weren't watching at all and I took full advantage. Of course, I was a sneak when the situation called for it. I would spend the night with my best friend. We'd stay at her grandma's house who was so old I suspect she might possibly have actually known General Grant. What place could be more chaste? My bedroom was right next to hers but she was so deaf that it was easy to sneak in my boyfriend who was a lot older than me and clearly just as stupid. But a good climber. I look back and think to myself that he could have been arrested.

Police were involved by the time we got married...

Kids are so stupid.

Well, at least it's real easy to abstain from sexual intercourse while in high school if you have an ugly, humorless face and so are severely lacking in charm and sex appeal.

Well THAT was classy...


As for studies that include 22 - 24 year olds - I'd be surprised at that. Teens pretty regularly means 11 - 19.


I saw this very thing just a few years ago, and if I had the time to dig it up, I'd find it again. Maybe I'll go look for it later.

My GAL kids don't see anything wrong in teen sex (they think it would be weird to abstain). Their parents tend to assume they are going to be doing it anyway and range from giving them birth control to just not thinking about it. Absent internalizing that it is just not a good idea, kids are pretty sneaky and creative. And enthusiastic. A public bathroom Dunkin Donuts near a school where a lot of my kids attend is a popular meeting place.

I'm all for locking up the little brain damaged warts.

I agree, if parents aren't watching them, it happens even earlier and more casually.

As for studies that include 22 - 24 year olds - I'd be surprised at that. Teens pretty regularly means 11 - 19.

Speaking as a two-time teen mom, I don't know if my parents watching closer would have made a difference. The fact is, they weren't watching at all and I took full advantage. Of course, I was a sneak when the situation called for it. I would spend the night with my best friend. We'd stay at her grandma's house who was so old I suspect she might possibly have actually known General Grant. What place could be more chaste? My bedroom was right next to hers but she was so deaf that it was easy to sneak in my boyfriend who was a lot older than me and clearly just as stupid. But a good climber. I look back and think to myself that he could have been arrested.

Police were involved by the time we got married...

Kids are so stupid.

Anyway, I bet most parents would much rather have a teen kid who's just drop dead gorgeous for days and so can easily have sex with another gorgeous kid than have a homely, fat, ugly kid who's still a virgin and dateless when graduating from high school.

Abstinence - The only form of birth control that works everytine it is tried.


This is obviously pseudo-science drummed up by some societal sponge trying to keep his government money coming in.

What do they mean by 'teen'? What do they mean by 'pregnant'?

Bornhere - you can type so you have to be smarter than the comment you made. If you can't see the difference between this study and the illiteracy study then let me help you out. This study was based on live births per 1000 women whose age started with a 1.

Had this been anything like the illiteracy study then actually counting live births would not have been used in the study. They would have used things like number of EPT test purchased by minors, state spending on prenatal care, high school dropout rates, number of school giving out condoms, calls to the Sue Johnson show, and on and on.

In the pseudo-science studies only anecdotal evidence is used and then weighted to produce the results. In real science real number are used - although this study was not scientific per se because there was no control group, only comparisons to other test groups.


BTW - I wonder would the teen pregnancy rates would be in New England if abortions were counted.

Anyway, I bet most parents would much rather have a teen kid who's just drop dead gorgeous for days and so can easily have sex with another gorgeous kid than have a homely, fat, ugly kid who's still a virgin and dateless when graduating from high school.

Bunty, I tend to disagree with you based on how many parents I see who are carrying around their four year olds who are bigger than they are, stuffing them with junk food, and giving them video games instead of telling to get their butts outside to play and learn how to make friends. When I see healthy, normal sized adults who pacify their children with food and don't encourage them to be active and social I have to wonder if they will think that is a good idea when junior is 5 foot 11, 280 pounds and a complete social misfit at age 25.

But being a virgin when they graduate from high school is not really that unheard of. Not all teens are sluts. And no, not all nonvirgins are sluts. Still, a lot of kids would rather be considered slutty than inexperienced. And I think that is sad.

And at any rate, this is about teen birth rates, not pregnancy rates of rates of being sexually active.

Teen pregnancy has always existed, and it's here to stay. The thing is, it's more socially acceptable now than it was in the past. Pregnant teenagers are no longer being hidden from the public, like they once were in the past. In fact, it seems as if teenage pregnancy is even glamourized, just look at the likes of Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. Back in the 50's and 60's, these girls wouldn't have been on the cover of People Magazine- they would have been sent away to "boarding school" for a few months, sheltered from prying eyes. There are Lifetime made for TV movies about the subject, there are websites devoted to pregnant teens, and there are special programs in schools for teenagers with child. It is programmed into the genes. Our ancestors started having babies as soon as they were physically able. It was a matter of survival, people didn't live very long back then. Times have changed, but evolution hasn't quite caught up yet. I guess the best way to prevent teen pregnancy is to put every pubescent girl on the pill.