First Rise in Teen Pregnancy Since ‘80s
One of the points made in the Real World Parents seminars and upcoming new book from Mark Matlock is that many of us carry around the false notion that everything is always getting worse for us culturally, especially where teens are concerned. But the stats have not backed that feeling up. In many categories, including stats related to divorce, drug use, and teen sex, the worst numbers peaked back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
In fact, a new study reported in the LA Times shows teen pregnancy rates are up for the first time since the late ‘80s—and the study’s authors are crediting that increase on abstinence-only education.
Data released this week from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on sexual and reproductive health, shows that the teen pregnancy rate rose 3% in 2006, the first increase since the late ‘80s. The institute, a pro-choice organization, says that abstinence-only sex education programs that took root during the Bush administration are to blame for the increase.
I haven’t read all of the data, but it seems like a sizable leap between correlation and causation in that conclusion. I wonder, too, how the data on abortions plays into those numbers. In any case, it doesn’t change our mission as Real World Parents to help our kids to learn to value purity, wisdom, and the life of the unborn as they navigate their hyper-sexualized culture.
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