Health

Mississippi Tops List for Teen Pregnancies

by Karenke4 | January 7, 2009 at 02:44 pm

958 views | 17 Recommendations | 5 comments

The Center for Disease Control has released information stating Mississippi as the leading state in teen pregnancies, stealing the top spots from New Mexico and Texas. The report reveals data gathered from birth certificates for pregnancies in 2006.

Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new federal report says. Mississippi's rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to new state statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The teen birth rate for that year in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.

Across the board there were higher rates of teen pregnancies than in 2005, resulting in 21,000 more births to girls between the ages of 15 and 19.

Some experts have blamed the national increase on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that does not teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception. They said that would explain why teen birth rate increases have been detected across much of the country and not just in a few spots.

There is debate about that, however. Some conservative organizations have argued that contraceptive-focused sex education is still common, and that the new teen birth numbers reflect it is failing.

I would agree that the 1 billion dollar, federally funded abstinence-only sex education initiative is failing, but in my mind it is only failing teens.

The religiously bent, pro-abstinence-only argument believes that providing information on sex, including birth control methods, sexuality and reproductive health issues will encourage kids to engage in sexual intercourse or lead to them to homosexuality. By making the subject taboo in schools, they believe it will make the acts themselves taboo.

Liberals argue that limiting discussion, awareness and resources to teens will only aid in more unplanned pregnancies and higher risks of STD s, as well as a plethora of emotional traumas that often emerge as a result of oppressed issues of sex and sexual identity.

There hasn't yet been a lot of statistical analysis done on the overall impacts of this initiative, but I will not be surprised to see a continued trend towards increased teen pregnancies if schools continue to prohibit real information on sex. Teens have, and always will experiment with their sexuality. It is a natural part of their development into (hopefully) healthy adults. And though the statistical numbers may fluctuate, the fact that some teens are having sex will never change. For those teens, the best possible thing we have to offer them to ensure their mental and physical health is information.

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Rhonda J Mangus

at 17:18 on January 7th, 2009

Thanks for this story, Karenke4!

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at 22:08 on January 7th, 2009

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rachel.s.

at 14:23 on January 8th, 2009

This situation could go either way. If you expose teens to this yes, it may encourage them to "experiment," but on the other hand, it may change one teen's life to not have sex. I believe that yes, they should teach sex-ed in schools. But I also think that they should include not only just facts about contraceptives, and pregnancy, but also how this might affect them in the future. I know all of the lectures I've gotten on this have included how when you're an adult, the sexual partners you had as a teen may cause troubles between you and your future spouse (std's, guilt, etc.), or just how you are mentally affected by all of this. I know sex among teenagers can be a really horrible thing, friends of mine have been put into almost abusive relationships (more mentally than physically) over sex. So my whole point is that if they're going to teach sex-ed in school, they should talk about how having sex affects you mentally, or may affect you in the future, and not just pregnancy and std's.

Karenke4

at 17:17 on January 8th, 2009

I certainly agree with you on that Rachel.s., no question that sex is a big and emotional issue for teens, I just think it is an issue that should not be ignored in the hopes that it will disappear. Thanks for the comment!

Barbara McPherson

at 14:22 on January 9th, 2009

Young people should be armed with the information about how to protect themselves if they indulge in sex before a committed relationship. Of course the prospect of pregnancy during teenage years is daunting but even more so is the prospect of AIDS. Other STDs may go undetected in a naive person leading to many medical complications. Yes, sex should be reserved for grownups, but the reality is it isn't always. It's my opinion that those that have the most info will make decisions based on knowledge and not fall prey to "it just happened".