Teenage pregnancy rises for the first time in 15 years

Sometimes I'm embarassed to be American.

New stats shows that teenage pregnancy has risen for the first time in 15 years thanks to George W.'s brilliant idea to cut funding for sex education programs in American schools only to replace them with 'abstinence only' programs. Under pressure from various evangelical organisations, George W. has successfully spent $176 million per year on abstinence education, allowing 435,000 babies to be born last year to mothers between the ages of 15-19.

Not only does the birth of a child compromise the ability of a young woman's ability to finish school, the cuts made to sex education funding in American high schools put millions of young Americans at risk of contracting STD's, including HIV and completely undermine the work of hundreds of women's organisations that worked tirelessly throughout the 90s to get the teenage pregnancy rate down to some of its lowest levels in American history. According to the Guttmacher Institute, one in three American teenagers receives no education about birth control. This is a statistic that should take your breath away.

I've raised a number of discussions in this blog about delayed childbearing and how in a number of ways, women having babies at 35 or 40 positively influences motherhood. Establishing a career, getting an education and becoming financially independent are just a few of the many factors that make women better mothers. We cannot rely on parents to teach young Americans about sex. All of the studies show that the most successful sex education happens in schools. The cuts to funding invariably affect poor and minority young women in America who are without the resources that middle-class, white Americans have a better chance of getting hold of. The president of Planned Parenthood says it best:

"The United States is facing a teen-pregnancy health-care crisis, and the national policy of abstinence-only programs just isn't working," said Cecile Richard, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "It is time for everyone who cares about teenagers to start focusing on the common-sense solutions that will help solve this problem."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2223667,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/05/AR2007120501208.html?hpid=sec-nation