Texas Leads the Nation in Teen Pregnancies

[marmar]

from The American Prospect's TAPPED blog:



TEXAS LEADS THE NATION IN TEEN PREGNANCY.

Everything really is bigger in Texas. This month's Texas Monthly reports that the state is the largest recipient of federal money for abstinence education -- more than $4.5 million annually -- but ranks first in the nation in teenage births. Almost a quarter of those births are not the girl's first delivery.

Failing to see a correlation between sex education that heavily emphasizes abstinence and high rates of teen births, Texas continues to endorse abstinence education as the primary way to address sexual activity among its teens. The word "condom" makes an appearance in only one of the four high school health textbooks approved by the state. This glaring omission is in part rooted in the Texas State Board of Education's power to dictate the content of health textbooks. In 1994, ultraconservative board members objected to an image of a brief case-touting woman with her toddler by her side, as well as illustrated demonstrations of breast and testicular self-exams. You know, because working moms and bodies are gross! While the Board can no longer edit these texts at will, it does issue the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Guidelines, and can adopt books that are ideologically in step with them. In this way, the Board is still able to put its stamp of approval on what students are exposed to in classrooms.

By fervently championing abstinence sex education, Texas has, perhaps unwittingly, created for itself the very problems abstinence only hopes to thwart. As the teenage population is projected to increase over the next 10 years, the Texas Department of State Health Services anticipates that this wholly inadequate brand of instruction will contribute to "serious implications for the patterns and trends in adolescent pregnancy." In the absence of a comprehensive sex education curriculum, Texas' teenagers -- and teenagers in states with similar programs -- will continue to be exceptionally vulnerable to the realities of how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, and the state will continue to raise generations of sexually illiterate adults.

--Anabel Lee


Posted by Dana Goldstein on May 2, 2008 4:26 PM


http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=05&year=2008&base_name=texas_leads_the_nation_in_teen

[varkam]

1. K&R - Onward Christian Soldiers...

:kick:

[drmeow]

2. snort!

[patrice]

3. I wonder what their proportion of "Chastity Ring" ceremonies & wearers are. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

5. I came here to say this. n/t

[The Doctor.]

11. I wonder how many of the girls that did that "Marry dad for abstinence" thing didn't realize

that they weren't supposed to consumate that marriage?

Just sayin.

[east texas lib]

4. Well, I don't know about the rest of the world...

But the Earth really is still flat here!;-)

[hootinholler]

6. Would an FLDS joke be out of line?

Probably.

-Hoot

[Cerridwen]

8. Yeah, probably.

Though I, too, had a punch line come to mind when I read the thread title. A little gallows humor I'm glad I "nipped in the bud".

[The Doctor.]

12. I'm sure my joke was.

I'm just counting down now....

[jody]

7. I'll tolerate the first but "a quarter of those births are not the girl's first delivery" is

unacceptable. I assume most of those births are to unmarried girls.

Society must find a way to stop this nonsense or we'll be forced to follow China's draconian example and limit couples to one child.

[terrell9584]

10. you've got to be kidding

The day that the United States institutes mandatory population control is the day that I get the hell out of this country, because if it does such a thing, then it proves that this is not America anymore.


Yes, these kids are going to probably have a tougher life, and it is not a good thing to have an increasing rate of out of wedlock births.......mandatory childbirth caps do not qualify as a realistic solution, not in the United States. That's eugenics and we don't do that here.

[jody]

16. Then what do you propose to solve the problem.? n/t

[Ilsa]

13. They can't mandate population controls. But they can stop

paying for services that help the kids. Then we'll be in some real shit.

Of course we're already in some deep shit in Texas. The population is growing too fast for our infrastructure to keep up. It's crowded. It's a function of immigration and childbirth.

[jody]

17. Then what do you propose to solve the problem.? n/t

[Ilsa]

19. I don't have a solution. Well, other than teaching real sex ed instead of

abstinence junk that doesn't work.

Frankly, I wish all parents would take their kids in to see the doctor and let the kids request birth control if they want to be sexually active. But poeple are in denial about what their kids are going to do.

I don't have a solution, but abandonment and cruelty won't work either.

[jody]

20. I don't have a humane solution either but there is a breaking point and we are heading toward it.

Society cannot afford to care for an unlimited number of wards of the state and do all the other things society demands like health care for all, care for an increasing older population, and others.

[Ilsa]

23. I agree. I live in one of those states that carries a

huge burden in dealing with large population increases which affect our schools and hospitals. I think offering, not requiring, sterilization, is one method that might help.

I was shamed in another thread for recommending that we have a limit on how many kids can be used for exemptions and credits on federal taxes, even if it is grandfathered in. (I know a number of upper middle class families that pay zip in FIT because they have 7-10 kids, and they pay nothing in FIT). I happen to think that families don't need to be rewarded with tax dollars just for having alot of kids.

Heck, maybe birth control pills in the water coolers might help. (Just kidding.)

[jody]

24. At least you are willing to talk about the problem. I was saddened by the findings of Edin & Kefalas

in their book "Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage".

Reviews of the book are worth browsing at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520248198/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

[izquierdista]

9. All Lincoln's fault

I'm sure if he took a good look at Texas today, he would reconsider that thing about preserving the Union at all costs.

[LanternWaste]

21. Yup... all of us in TX are out to eat your children and burn your houses.

Yup... all of us in TX are out to eat your children and burn your houses.

'cause that's what we do.... :eyes:

[izquierdista]

25. How can you possibly stand it?

I know that Austin is a small island in a sea of rednecks, and I know that Bush does not poll 100% there. I know that when I see a Texas license plate, there is only an 80% chance that the driver is a complete asshole. But how can the other 20% stand it? How can you stand the institutionalized stupidity that is Texas? It can't be quality of life, because as this article shows, there is none there.

[G_j]

14. & on a larger scale..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/aug/30/usa.aids

Bush accused of Aids damage to Africa

Jeevan Vasagar and agencies in Nairobi and Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian,
Tuesday August 30 2005


A senior United Nations official has accused President George Bush of "doing damage to Africa" by cutting funding for condoms, a move which may jeopardise the successful fight against HIV/Aids in Uganda.
Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, said US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda, one of the few African countries which has succeeded in reducing its infection rate.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven by ," Mr Lewis said yesterday. "To impose a dogma-driven policy that is fundamentally flawed is doing damage to Africa."

The condom shortage has developed because both the Ugandan government and the US, which is the main donor for HIV/Aids prevention, have allowed supplies to dwindle, according to an American pressure group, the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (Change).

In 2003, President Bush declared he would spend $15bn on his emergency plan for Aids relief, but receiving aid under the programme has moral strings attached.

Recipient countries have to emphasise abstinence over condoms, and - under a congressional amendment - they must condemn prostitution.
..more..

[struggle4progress]

15. Sex! Sex! Don't have it! No! Sex! Sex! Sex! Abstain! Sex! Want to? Don't!

Sex! No! Sex sex! Sure you want to! But no no! Sex sex sex! No no no!

Rilly is surprisin that don't work ...

[IronLionZion]

26. Yeah I'm really shocked that teenagers don't do as they're told.

Telling horny young people not to have sex is like telling fish to not swim. At least in Utah, they get married. No, not the FDLS bastards who rape children. But many Mormon teenagers do marry each other consensually so they can have sex. People in my rural community in Pennsylvania often get married when they're around 18 so they can have sex.

Sex is really good and people want to have it. Republicans are just kidding themselves for thinking they can stop it by just saying don't do it.

[Solly Mack]

18. but abortions are obviously down in that age group

and that is what is important

snicker

on a less sarcastic note


and children will be paying the price of ignorance imposed on them by the so-called adults...and the cycle will continue

poverty and health concerns...spiral..spiral...spiral

out of control

[Disturbed]

22. Sex Education promotes sexual activity.

:crazy: