Poll Shows The Opinions Of Teenagers In The U.S.

These charts reflect the results of a recent Washington Post / Ipsos Poll. They surveyed a national sample of 1,349 young people between the ages of 14 and 18. The poll has a 3 point margin of error.

I found the results interesting, and thought you might also.

There's A Reason For Texas' High Teen Pregnancy Rate

Texas ranks third in the nation for having a high teen pregnancy rate (73 out of every 1000), behind New Mexico (80) and Mississippi (76). And it leads the nation in the rate of second teen pregnancies. Obviously, the state leaders are doing something wrong.

The charts above are from a new report from the Texas Freedom Network. They give us a good idea of why the teen pregnancy rate is so high in Texas. Texas schools are failing to teach real sex education. About 83.4% of Texas schools teach abstinence only (58.3%) or nothing at all (25.1%).

This is because the Republicans have a stranglehold on state government, and they support abstinence only (or no sex education at all) in an effort to pander to the large number of fundamentalist christians in their base. These fundamentalists have the silly notion that if sex is not mentioned, then teens will not learn of it and have premarital sex.

The truth is far different. Teens are not stupid. They know sex exists, and just telling them not to engage in it is futile. What teens need is the knowledge that comes with real sex education -- knowledge that can prevent teen pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases. By not providing them with that knowledge, schools (and political leaders) are failing the youth of Texas.

As the bottom chart shows, things have improved slightly from eight years ago -- with the percentage getting abstinence only or nothing falling from 96.3% in 2007-08 to the current level of 83.4%. That is primarily because the Obama administration removed abstinence only requirements mandated by the Bush administration.

But with the national government now controlled completely by right-wing Republicans, and the same being true of Texas state government, I wouldn't expect anymore improvement in the teaching of real sex education. If anything, there will probably be a return to the failed policies of the past.

Teen Pregnancy Rate Drops (But Not Due To Abstinence)

The chart above is from a report in The Journal of Adolescent Health. It shows that since 2007 the rate of both teen pregnancies and teen births have been dropping. That's a good thing, but what's is causing the drop?

Were the "abstinence only" folks right? Is their message finally starting to sink in with teens? NO. The study also found that the percentage of teens having sex has remained constant. The percentage of teens having sex is the same as it was in 2007.

Is the drop in teen births due to more use of abortion? Again NO. It seems that the abortion rate has also been falling.

So, what is causing the drop in teen pregnancies and births? It's exactly what public health officials have been saying for years. It's a wider availability of effective contraceptive methods. If you provide effective contraceptive and teach teens how to use them, the rate of teen pregnancies and teen births will go down.

We shouldn't have needed a study to show us that, since common sense will say the same thing. But for those hard-headed people among us, we now have a scientific study to prove it.

NOTE -- And in a back-handed way the study also shoots down the notion that the wider availability of contraceptive methods will cause more teens to have sex. As reported above, the percentage of teens having sex has remained constant.

Medically-Accurate Sex Education Works

(This chart was made using CDC figures from their latest report on births in U.S.)

There is more evidence now that real medical-accurate sex education works to prevent teen pregnancies -- and works far better than the religiously-driven abstinence-only programs. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released its report of births in the United States (2011). And the information about teen pregnancies is particularly interesting.

The teen pregnancy rate for the country as a whole dropped from 34.2 in 2010 (per 1,000 girls) to a rate of 31.3 in 2011. The rate dropped in nearly every state, but it has dropped the most (and remains the lowest) in those states that provide real sex education to students.

An excellent example of this is what has been accomplished in California. That state has seen its teen pregnancy rate drop about 60% -- from a high in 1991 of 70.9, to a current rate of 28.7 (below the national average). State officials and public health officials give credit to state laws mandating comprehensive sex education with medically-accurate information on birth control, and community-based family planning programs providing resources to teens. California is definitely moving in the right direction.

That's still not as low as some other states (like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont -- who have the lowest rates in the nation), but it is a remarkable accomplishment for such a large state -- and it shows what can be done with some reasonable state effort. I expect the rate will continue to drop there.

Meanwhile, the states mandating abstinence-only religious programs continue to have the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the nation -- states like Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Arkansas. There is no reason these states couldn't do as well (or better) than California. But they will never do it by preaching abstinence-only instead of teaching real medical-accurate sex education.

We can do even better in this country. But we'll never do much better until we stop replacing science with religion in too many of our schools. We need to trust our young people enough to teach them the truth.

Teen Pregnancy

There are 365,000 births to teen mothers (age 15 to 19) each year in this country -- and nearly 67,000 of them are second, third, or fourth births to the same teen mother. That tells me we are doing something wrong -- we are failing the children of this country. Note on the second chart that the states with the worst teen birth rates are generally states where fundamentalist Republicans rule. They think the answer is just to tell children not to have sex, and then refuse to teach them any sex education. They are wrong, and it is the children who suffer because of it.

Religion or teaching abstinence does not prevent teen pregnancies. Studies have shown that. What does prevent teen pregnancies is good sex education and easy access to contraceptives. Fundamentalists believe that teaching the truth about sex will make children have sex. That's silly. The children who want to have sex will do so whether they know the truth or have access to contraceptives or not, and the ones who don't want to will not be bolstered by preaching at them.

I don't think teens having sex is a very good idea, but I don't think it's a sin either. And I would rather my child be taught the truth and have access to contraceptives, than to make life a lot harder by having a teen pregnancy. But then I think my children are more important than any religion. And I think we could go a long way toward solving the problem of teen pregnancy in this country if all parents thought that way. If a loving god did exist, wouldn't he/she agree?

Teen Pregnancy Down (In Some States)

It looks like Texas no longer leads the nation in the number of teen pregnancies (although I think it still is number one in the number of second pregnancies among teens). The state with the most teen pregnancies per capita is Texas' western neighbor, New Mexico. But New Mexico is followed closely by Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, Arkansas, and Arizona.

Teen pregnancy has actually fallen in the United States as a whole, but the states listed above have not helped the national average. Why is this? Because these states either don't mandate sex education programs at all, or they don't require those programs to be medically accurate. Too often, if programs are offered at all in those states, they either are just "abstinence only" programs or contain anti-contraceptive propaganda instead of medically accurate information.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the drop in teen pregnancies is almost exclusively due to increased use of contraceptives by teenagers. The rate of use of contraceptives nationally is 75%. That's the highest it's ever been, but sadly, it means that 25% of teens nationwide still don't use contraceptives when having sex. And in the states with the leading pregnancy rates, the use of contraceptives is lower (only 60.5% in New Mexico).

The truth, whether right-wing fundamentalists want to admit it or not, is that good medically accurate sex education programs do work to reduce teen pregnancies. Abstinence only programs and programs that provide anti-contraceptive propaganda instead of medically accurate information just lead to higher rates of teen pregnancies. It may make fundamentalists feel good to teach religion instead of contraception, but it just puts teens in danger of unwanted pregnancies (and sexually-transmitted diseases).

Note -- The above maps are from Think Progress.

Teen Pregnancy Drops In U.S. (But Not Nearly Enough)

CNN was trumpeting recently that the teen pregnancy rate in the United States has dropped again. It now rests at about 34.3 births for every 1,000 teenage girls. That is the lowest rate for the United States since 1946 (66 years ago). Great news. Right?

Well, it's great news if your standard for great news is pretty low. That 34.3 birth rate is still among the highest for all developed nations. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has a rate of only 14 per 1,000. Many of the European countries, like France, the Netherlands, and all of the Nordic countries have a much smaller rate than even Canada. Japan was also down into single digits.

The truth is that even though the rate has fallen in this country, it is still far too high. And one reason for it is because far too many states still refuse to teach sex education -- relying on "abstinence-only" preaching instead. And those states naturally have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

There is no reason why the United States should have a higher rate than other developed nations. The only reason it's happening is because too many Americans believe that teaching real sex education in the schools will make teenagers want to have sex (and that offends their religious beliefs). It's a ridiculous belief. Too many teens are going to have sex whether sex education is taught or not. That's just a part of what happens in the teen years. But educated teens can at least avoid getting pregnant or catching an STD. All we have to do is look at the success of the other developed nations to see that.

I'm glad the rate has fallen. But it is time we really get serious about this problem. And it's not going to be solved by preaching and burying our heads in the sand.