Report: U.S. teen births rise

[ladywnch]

Source: AP

ATLANTA - The nation's teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 14 years, according to a new government report.

"It took us by surprise," said Stephanie Ventura of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a co-author of the report.

The birth data for 2006 also showed births to unmarried mothers hit a new record high, and the overall birth rate has climbed to its highest level since 1971.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071205/ap_on_he_me/teen_births

---

good to see all those abstinence and purtiy pledges are working so well. All those evangelicals/fundies running rampant in politics should be spending more time looking to their family values! Although, I guess their out creating families to share their values......whatever they are.

[Taverner]

1. See! Abstinence education works!

Now we have more desperate women who are willing to work for less than minimum wage in order to support their families!

[Quantess]

4. Abstinence as birth control has worked throughout the centuries.

It's how the Lord wanted it. Why rush toward these new-fangled contraceptives? Biblical people didn't use condoms, so why should we? :eyes:

[TrogL]

39. errr...actually they did

You can make a functional condom out of a sheep's intestine.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Conservatives insisting children be ignorant of sex

Ignorance is a conservative value after all.

[China_cat]

3. "It took us by surprise," ???????

Stephanie Ventura has got to be kidding. With the cuts in women's health care, increases in both cost and availability of birth control and abstinence only programs for sex ed, she's 'surprised' that teen birth rate, unmarried mothers and overall birth rate is up?

I guess she'll be totally shocked to see the rates lately for teen std's.

[Turbineguy]

9. Surprise?

Jump off a building lady. You'll be "surprised" what happens when you hit the sidewalk!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Maybe this is why:

1. No comprehensive sex/reproduction education in the schools/abstinence only.

2. Difficult access to reliable birth control.

3. Parental notification laws prevent girls from seeking abortions without a court order.

4. A lot of abortion clinics have closed due to threats of terrorism, insurance, zoning, and/or lack of qualified physicians willing to perform the procedure. No access to abortion services, period.

5. Reluctance to go through a throng of protesters calling the girls "baby-killers" on their way to the entrance of the open abortion clinics.

[LisaM]

12. Don't forget fundie pharmacists unwilling to dispense Plan B at WalMart

When there is no other reasonably close place to get it.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Thank you and campus birth control is exorbinately higher and often

unaffordable.

[Megahurtz]

14. Horrible.

A life of Reproductive Slavery under NeoCon Rule.

[Dervill Crow]

6. No one could have predicted that lack of education about birth control would lead to more births. nt

[Igel]

7. Read much more.

http://www.cdc.gov/NCHS/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_07.pdf

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I don't know why it should be such a surprise. Abstinence must

be one of the hardest birth control methods for a teen (or anyone else, for that matter) to practice. What did they expect?

:eyes:

[shanti]

10. i believe it!

at my son's hs, at least 20 girls are pregnant or had babies this year. :( brittney syndrome? :shrug:

[xxqqqzme]

11. Wow! *'s legacy

just keeps getting bigger & bigger.

[BlueIris]

15. ...egh.

[JBoy]

16. I didn't know pregnancy was a "disease"

Curious why someone from the Center for Disease Control is writing a report on teen pregnancy.

The rate of teen pregnancy is probably only starting to go up now, because it takes a while for the lack of education given to 8 year olds to "work its way through the system". Don't be surprised if they start reporting increased STD rates too.

[Deja Q]

17. OMG. Mothers giving birth to teenagers? Talk about being coddled; it used to be for only 9 months.

Now it's 13, 14, 15 years in the oven and even then...

Did I read that wrong?

[Demeter]

18. It Was Hard Enough Birthing a 10 Pounder

Can you imagine birthing a 120lb teen? Or more?

[ohio2007]

19. future taxpayers to support the baby boomers

....unless the children are born into the system........

[kineneb]

44. would expect most are

"born into the system" that is.

The better off will always have access to birth control/abortion. As always, it is the poor who will suffer unwanted children.

[Sultana]

20. but, but, but...

abstinence works

:sarcasm:

purity pledges are creepy. :puke:

[customerserviceguy]

21. Sorry

Not buying any of the above. Condoms are cheap and easy to get, and as far as Chimpy keeping kids in the dark about contraception, well, they can always hear enough about it from each other to look up reliable information on the Internet.

I strongly suspect that a lot of teen girls WANT to have a baby (for reasons I cannot fathom), but that's just my goofy way of looking at it...

[CRF450]

22. Personally I think alot of teen girls get too crazy about sex...

and then they'd end up getting pregnant. My ex girlfriend (went out with her durring the summer) was just friggin crazy about sex, she didn't care about using a condom as long as she was on the birth control pill. I didn't really trust those pills, and now she learned a lesson why. She just recently got pregnant from someone else.

[bliss_eternal]

37. Um, clearly teenage girls aren't having sex alone...

...or the pregnancy wouldn't happen.

I see no mention of "teenage boys" in your post. That's interesting.
Why blame girls? Why blame anyone? Sexuality is normal.

[CRF450]

47. Women are the root of all evil!!

Haha, J/K.

Sorry, I shouldn't have left out the guys. Most that get a girl pregnant by accident think with their wiener too much instead of thinking about protection. I know very well that sexuality is normal, but its sad when a teenage girl gets pregnant before she can even get her own life started.

[bliss_eternal]

48. Yes, it is sad...

...but there are more issues that go into this than merely male or female hormones running amok. Socioeconomic issues, environment, etc. First and foremost we need to look at education.

Too many respondents in this thread seem to want to blame the teens, and I'm not willing to do that. I understand that many teens from many different kinds of backgrounds (not just poor) aren't exposed to appropriate sexual educations. If they aren't aware how one can prevent pregnancy they can't and won't. Both boys and girls need to be aware of the facts of sex, sexuality, std's and how to prevent them.

Programs that were teaching young people about sex and protection were cut with this administration. That's a fact. They poured a great deal of money into abstinence education. Clearly telling kids to just say no to their desires does not work.

[bliss_eternal]

38. Well, you said it....

Quote:
but that's just my goofy way of looking at it...

...So there's no need for me to label your post, since you are already aware of how it's content will read.

[customerserviceguy]

45. I'm glad to see

that teen pregnancy is 100% the male's fault, in your eyes. Frankly, most boys would do well to regard any girl they fancy to be WANTING a baby more than anything else, if they treated them that way, then there would be no teen pregnancies.

[bliss_eternal]

46. Clearly you didn't read my post.

I didn't assign fault to any ONE person or the other--you did however.

I suggested that girls can't get pregnant alone. Something you should try to keep in mind. A girl can want a baby, but w/out willing help of a boy--it's not going to happen. Your assertions seem based on nothing more than your own need to blame young girls for the problem without looking at anything else. Then you proceed to suggest I'm blaming young men because I simply remind you they are part of the pregnancy process.

I find your biased unfounded views appallingly sexist. As such welcome to my ignore list. I can't imagine you'd ever have anything enlightening to post that I need to read.

[Up2Late]

23. Teen births tilt up, unmarried rate hits record (Reuters)

Hey! Another "Mission Accomplished!" :banghead: :eyes:

Teen births tilt up, unmarried rate hits record

Wed Dec 5, 2007 5:26pm ET136

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The birth rate for teenagers increased in 2006 in the United States for the first time since 1991, while childbearing among unmarried women surged to the highest level on record, health officials said on Wednesday.

Across-the-board increases in birth rates for women ages 15 to 44 drove the total U.S. fertility rate -- the estimated average number of births for women in their lifetimes -- to its highest mark since 1971, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.

The birth rate for females aged 15 to 19 rose by 3 percent in 2006 from the previous year, to 41.9 live births per 1,000 from 40.5 in 2005. This ends 14 years of declines during which the teen birth rate dropped by 34 percent from a peak of 61.8 births per 1,000 in 1991.

The increases were largest among black teens, whose birth rate climbed 5 percent in 2006 from the prior year. The rate was up 3 percent for white and 2 percent for Hispanic teens....

(more at link) <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-12-05T222606Z_01_N05617851_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRTHS-USA.xml>

[Judi Lynn]

24. Teen Birth Rate Rises in U.S., Reversing a 14-Year Decline

Source: Washington Post

Teen Birth Rate Rises in U.S., Reversing a 14-Year Decline

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 6, 2007; Page A01

After falling steadily for more than a decade, the birth rate for American teenagers jumped last year, federal health officials reported yesterday, a sharp reversal in what has been one of the nation's most celebrated social and public health successes.

The birth rate rose by 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 among 15-to-19-year-old girls, after plummeting 34 percent between 1991 and 2005, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.

"This is concerning," said Stephanie J. Ventura, who heads the center's reproductive statistics branch. "It represents an interruption of 14 years of steady decline. Now unexpectedly we have an increase of 3 percent, which is a significant increase."

Ventura said it is too soon to know whether the increase was an aberration or the beginning of a trend. But she said the magnitude of the rise, especially after many years of decline, is worrisome.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120501208.html?nav=rss_email/components

[jody]

25. "Teen pregnancy and child care is directly related to poverty, both for the mother and the child.

This should be a wake-up call for a renewed focus on preventing teen pregnancy."

The increase was greatest among black teens, whose birth rate rose 5 percent between 2005 and 2006, reaching 63.7 per 1,000 teens. That was particularly disappointing because black teens had previously made the greatest gains, with the rate among 15-to-17-year-olds dropping by more than half.

"There had been dramatic, dramatic improvement in that community," Brown said. "All of us had hoped it would continue to decline."

The rate rose 2 percent, to 83 births per 1,000, for Hispanic teens, and 3 percent, to 26.6 per 1,000, for white teens.

[sam sarrha]

27. what 's worse is that it is a never ending cycle..

[jody]

30. Agree! I want presidential candidates to debate the issue and present viable solutions to our

poverty problem.

IMO too many of our social and economic problems, like teen births, have poverty as a major or dominant causal factor.

For over five decades I've listened to countless candidates spout BS about solving poverty and no solutions yet.

Enough already, we need new ideas, new candidates, and a complete overhaul of the two major political parties to focus on solving our pandemic poverty problem.

Either that or We the People should start a new political party rededicated to winning the War on Poverty.

IMO that's a greater threat to the U.S. than *'s War on Terror.

[sam sarrha]

33. Reagan ended th Tariffs that protected jobs, and th tariffs funded education and vocational training

keeping us up to date with new technology and keeping workers competitive with foreign markets

providing a cushion for lost jobs in transition to change.. incomes were higher, thus there was a sufficient tax base.. college was FREE, you just paid for registration an books. you could actually work your way thru college.. that's not possible now

tariffs were minimal, nothing like what other countries have against us now

[Snarkturian Clone]

36. You've got that right.

There's a girl at the school I work in that is in 7th grade and has a 43 year old grandmother.

Her grandmother was 30 when she was born.

Do the math.

Unfortunately, in the neighborhood the school is in, having a baby at 15 is nothing unusual.

[sam sarrha]

26. well when you drop out of the failed educational system and cant get a job.. not much else to do

but smoke dope and screw

[bliss_eternal]

28. Well,....duh.

Doesn't take much to figure out.

The Clinton years = pro birth control + pro safe sex + pro sexual education + safe, legal abortions.

The idiot....oh excuse me the * years = war on birth control (pharmacists denying women bcp on moral grounds) + disbanding sex education in schools + abstinence only education + making abortions illegal

:crazy: What other result would they get? Kids aren't getting information.

Abstinence education does not work.

[xchrom]

29. well that statistic can join the rise in others --

poverty -- more americans with out health insurance -- increases in violent crime -- more americans living from pay check to pay check -- just goes on and on in the bushco america.

[bliss_eternal]

31. So true.

I understand that hate crimes went up considerably too (violence against glbt's, people of color, couples in interracial marriages, etc.). I had a thread with some stats I was saving for a while, supporting this info. but I seem to have lost it from my bookmarks.

[jody]

34. Homicide rates are seven times greater between the worst and best ethnic communities.

In the U.S. guns are equally available to members of every ethnic community however DOJ reports that the homicide rate in the ethnic community with the highest rate is seven times greater than the rate in the ethnic community with the lowest homicide rate.

The U.S, Census Bureau reports the poverty rate in the worst ethnic community is 2.5 times greater than the best ethnic community.

[NorthernSpy]

42. "Worst ethnic community"? Best ethnic community"?

Where the fuck are we -- Stormfront?


:puke:

[jody]

43. Bad choice of words on my part. I was trying to fit the sentence into the subject space. In

retrospect I should have said the community with the worst homicide rate and the community with the best homicide rate but even that's not very good.

Perhaps I should have said the ethnic community with the highest homicide rate and the ethnic community with the lowest homicide rate. :shrug:

Perhaps you would have preferred "Homicide rates are seven times greater in the black community than the white community."

In either case, :puke: back at you.

[liberal N proud]

32. Yeah, That abstinence only is really working... NOT!!!!

[Crayson]

35. Obviously the "faith based" programs start to show effect...

congratulations on the great work!

/sarcasm off

[LiberalFighter]

40. Teens have gotten sick of Bush and have sex to avoid hearing about him

[gorbal]

41. explains everything

That's what the Republican's plan was. Since people are biologically more likely to have children in unsafe conditions, creating these conditions will help them offset the perceived worker shortage in 20 years. Why didn't I think of this! Now when all the boomers are in retirement and or nursing homes, we'll have plenty of 20 year olds to take over their jobs and empty their bedpans. Such geniuses (sarcasm)