Let’s get some basic facts down about teen pregnancy and sex. Currently over 2000 teenage girls get pregnant every day. That’s a staggering 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. In the US, nearly 4 in 10 teen pregnancies (excluding those ending in miscarriages) are terminated by abortion.
The United States currently has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world. There are more teen pregnancies in the United States then in Italy, France, Spain and Germany combined. While the teen pregnancy rates dropped from 1991- 2005, recent reports show that the number of teenage girls who become pregnant is once again on the rise.
Over the past 8 years the Bush administration heavily favored abstinence only sexual education in the nation’s public schools. President Bush’s push for abstinence only sex ed. is a continuation of his initiative as the Governor of Texas. It was in Texas that then Governor Bush put over ten million dollars towards abstinence only sex ed. programs. This initiative was not shown to be effective at curbing teen pregnancies or halting the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Yet, despite its apparent failure to stem the rise in teen pregnancy and STDs President Bush continued to be a strong advocate for abstinence only sexual education programs once he entered the White House. President Bush expanded these programs to public schools throughout the nation. In his last budget as president, President Bush requested approximately $136 million dollars to expand abstinence only programs in public schools.
President Obama takes a different approach to teen pregnancy prevention. In the budget released a couple of weeks ago, President Obama eliminates federal funding for sexual education that teaches abstinence only. His budget proposes a teen pregnancy initiative that uses evidenced based models. The portion of the budget that discusses this new initiative reads as follows:
The 2010 Budget proposes a new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative to support community-based and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence-based and promising models. In addition, a new Strengthening Communities Fund will help build the capacity of non-profit organizations and State, Local and Tribal entities to better serve low-income and disadvantaged populations. This Budget also proposes funding for (1) a new child welfare initiative, and (2) a human services case management system for Federally-declared disasters. This Budget eliminates funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education, the mandatory Title V Abstinence Education program, the Compassion Capital Fund, and Rural Community Facilities. The 2010 Budget includes $50,000,000 in mandatory funds for States, territories, and Tribes to use for teen pregnancy prevention.
Which of these programs works? While it is easy to blame the Bush administration for the recent increase in teen pregnancy do the facts back it up? The answer simply is yes! An overwhelming amount of research shows that abstinence only programs simply do not work. In 2001, the Institute for Medicine urged Congress and other government bodies to “eliminate requirements that public funds be used for abstinence-only education, and that states and local school districts implement and continue to support age-appropriate comprehensive sex education and condom availability programs in schools.” It was their assertion that by limiting sex education to promote abstinence only that teen pregnancy and STD rates would increase. Research clearly shows that comprehensive sexual education, such as the new initiative President Obama is proposing, does not increase sexual activity, it does not hasten the onset of sex, increase the frequency of sex, nor does it increase the number of sexual partners. To the contrary, some sex and HIV education programs delay the onset of sex, reduce the frequency of sex, or reduce the number of sexual partners thus helping to curb the chances of teen pregnancy.
No comments:
Post a Comment