Teen Births Increase for First Time 15 Years
WASHINGTON - The teenage birthrate in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued yesterday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration's abstinence-only sexual education efforts were working.
The federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates.
"Spending tens of million of tax dollars each year on programs that hurt our children is bad medicine and bad public policy," said Dr. David A. Grimes, vice president of Family Health International, a nonprofit reproductive health organization based in North Carolina.
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said that blaming abstinence-only programs was "stupid." Rector said that most young women who get pregnant are highly educated about contraceptives but want to have babies.
(Yes, because what 15 year old doesn't want to have babies? I think what we are saying is that it doesn't work and is therefore a waste of money.)
President Bush noted the long decline in teenage pregnancy rates in his 2006 State of the Union address. "Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country," Bush said. The White House did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
In a speech last year, Senator Hillary Clinton said that declines in teenage pregnancy rates during the Clinton administration resulted because of a focus on family planning.
Teenage birth rates are driven by teenage sex, contraception, and abortion rates.
In the 1990s, teenage sex rates dropped and condom use rose because teenagers were frightened of AIDS, said Dr. John S. Santelli, chairman of the Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University.
But recent advances in AIDS treatments have lowered concerns about the disease. And AIDS education, which emphasized abstinence and condom use, has flagged.
The teen increase was based on the 15-19 age group, which accounted for about 99 percent of the more than 440,000 births to teens in 2006.
It must also be noted that the Bible Belt leads the country in out of wedlock child births, teenage pregnancy, divorce and crime.
So much for abstinence only education.
Message: Another failed conservative agenda; another failed Bush policy and another waste of tax payers money.
