Does Abstinence-Only Education Stop Teen Pregnancy?
Once again, Texas has the highest teen birth rate of any state in the United States. Interestingly, Texas has a policy of denying contraceptives without parental consent and strongly promotes abstinence-only sex education in public schools.
By contrast, California, which promotes both teaching abstinence and birth control, and which makes contraception available to teens without parental consent, has a much lower teen birth rate.
From 1991 to 2004, the nation's teen birth rate dropped by a third. Texas only dropped by 19 percent, while California dropped by 47 percent, according to the non-profit group Child Trends. (California and Texas are respectively the first and second most populous U. S. states).
Certainly there are other factors involved--micro or sub cultures, wealth vs. poverty, etc. But the numbers certainly don't support the idea that abstinence-only education stops teenagers from having sex.
See a Dallas Morning News article about this at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110507dnmetteenbirths.35daddb.html
Comments
If you don't want Little Red meeting Big Bad Wolves, don't send her into the woods! But you can't keep her locked in the closet all day. So you'd better make sure she's prepared!
Posted by: Little Red | November 6, 2007 01:16 PM
Texas also has really strict laws against love. If ur 19 and u got a 16 year old boyfriend they can arrest you and make you a registered sex offender! It's just stupid!
When they make something natural illegal people will do it anyway but they'll hide it. Then if they need help they won't get it because they're afraid! So they get pregnant and have kids they aren't ready for.
If you want to take care of teen pregnancy then teach preteens everything about sex so they're prepared!
Posted by: Lorien Loveshade | November 10, 2007 05:29 AM
Keep people ignorant and you can control them. Isn't that what American education is all about? But it doesn't work, does it?
Posted by: Gee My Hair Smells Terrific | November 13, 2007 12:56 PM
Keeping people ignorant never works. Sexual urge is natural and will happen whether you teach them or not. You think somebody has to teach monkeys?
Posted by: Alicia Mohair | November 15, 2007 05:21 PM
I put this in another post hope its ok here too. I have a little sister who got knocked up when she was 12 years old! She didn't even know about sex. We're in this really strict religion I don't even believe in but they don't teach us anything. If she knew what she was doing she wouldn't have gotten pregnant! She really wasn't ready but it happened.
Posted by: Aunt Ashley | November 17, 2007 05:41 PM
So keeping kids ignorant doesn't work? What ignoramuses thought it would? Sex is gonna happen!
Posted by: Wilmad | November 23, 2007 06:43 PM
People find ways to do the impossible. Breath under water. Fly through the air. Travel to the moon. If they can do that, people can certainly figure out how to have sex without being provided a manual.
Posted by: Kalifia Feju | December 3, 2007 03:04 AM
Just goes to show Texas is a backwards good old boy redneck state. If you don't like that move to California!
Posted by: Will Quim | December 8, 2007 07:30 PM