Mind Boggling.

Its mind boggling. My mind has been boggled: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/05/teen.births.ap/index.html

and for those of you who like cross referencing: http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SE.pdf

So what's it say? When I found the actual report, there are 19 states above the national average. Ten of those states had abstinence only or abstinence stressed education. 2 I couldn't find information on their policies (Alaska and Nebraska... though I'd be comfortable hazarding a guess...) 5 states had no specific policy (leaving it to the school districts I suppose.) Only one place above the norm stressed contraceptives (Washington DC) and one state covered both (California). Utah had the highest rate of teen pregnancy at a birth rate (live births per thousand) 21.2compared to the national average of 14. Utah not only is an abstinence only state they also have a law prohibiting teachers from answering questions asked of them by students if those answers would conflict with the law's requirements.

Without more comprehensive data its tough to tell exactly what kind of effect abstinence only/stressed education is having on birthrates but we already know from a previous study commissioned by congress (hoping to prove the effectiveness of abstinence only education) that Ab-o ed. fails to reduce sexual activity in teens but does suppress condom use.

What bothers me about this issue is how interconnected it is to other issues. We should want to reduce teen pregnancy. And although I think we should make sure that abortion is safe and legal, we should endeavor to reduce the need for it (in no small part by reducing... teen pregnancy). We should also endeavor to reduce the spread of STI's/STD's. We should want to reduce the number of people on welfare (there are higher rates of pregnancy in urban area and in lower income areas -hence DC).

So many of our problems are all tied together. We sit playing whack-a-mole trying to combat each problem as it pops up when we should be trying to figure out how to unplug the machine.