Birth control credited with drop in teen pregnancy

[deadparrot]

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The dramatic declines in teenage pregnancy rates noted in the United States between 1995 and 2002 were largely due to improved contraceptive use, not to abstinence, a new study shows.

"The current emphasis of U.S. domestic and global policies, which stress abstinence-only sex education to the exclusion of accurate information on contraception, is misguided," warn doctors in a report just released online by the American Journal of Public Health.

Dr. John S. Santelli from Columbia University, New York, and colleagues examined the relative contribution of declining sexual activity and improved contraceptive use to the recent decline in pregnancy rates among U.S. women between the ages of 15 to 19 years. The data were derived from interviews with nearly 1,400 women in 1995 and 1,150 in 2002.

The investigators estimate that the likelihood of pregnancy in this age group declined 34 percent between 1995 and 2002, and that 86 percent of the decline in pregnancy risk was attributable to improved use of contraception. Reduced sexual activity explained only 14 percent of the decline in teen pregnancy.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/01/bc.teen.pregnancy.reut/index.html?eref=yahoo

[ananda]

1. What?!

Not abstinence-only education?

[Horse with no Name]

2. You don't say!

I could have told them that without spending a dime on a study.:eyes:

[evilgenius602]

10. No Shit. Breaking News: Water still Wet!

[Kellyiswise]

36. This drop could have occured much sooner and had we listened to Ms. Elders.

But, as usual, the Christian right did its best to set teen prgenancy back a hundred years.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[valerief]

4. Wingnut response to this: Suppose the Virgin Mary had used

contraception and Jesus was never born? What would the world come to then?

[hedgehog]

6. How do we know Mary was the only woman God asked?

Maybe the others said no.

[NickB79]

17. If God can make the entire damned universe in 6 days

I think his Super-Sperm could blast through any lowly diaphram Mary might have been packing.

Hell, it would have made it a double miracle: "Virgin on birth control mysteriously pregnant, story at 9"

[AnneD]

21. The CORRECT RW response...

well suppose Mary gave God a BJ just like Clinton and Jesus would have never been born? It's all Clinton's fault. Behold the power of the Clenis.

[valerief]

22. LOL! You got that right! nt

[hedgehog]

5. Since they were too little to know the mechanics, I've instructed my kids that

they need to wait until they're married to have kids. I've also noted that I'm fooling all the people at church who think I never used birth control. I have six, but I used birth control before the first one and after the last one. Oddly enough, I've never worried about their behavior. I am also working on getting the girls their cervical cancer vaccinations.

[AngryOldDem]

8. Same here

But I am also too much of a realist to know that once my kids come of age, they will be making their own decisions, and I want them to be informed. As much as I would like them to "behave in the old-fashioned way," I know that it will be up to them to make that choice for themselves. And like you, so far I've had nothing to worry about, either, and when my oldest goes for her physical in February, I am most certainly going to ask about the vaccine. Both of my girls will get it, cost be damned.

[hedgehog]

12. I'm still caught in a Catch 22

The insurance covers it, but only pays half the cost of the vaccine, so the family doctor can't afford to buy it and he's not allowed to bill me for the difference. Also, the company supplying the vaccine can't or won't ship him any vaccine, anyways! They didn't deliver any flu vaccine until October because they were busy supplying big box department stores.

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Just think of all the babies that would have replaced the immigrants!

Oh wait...that's abortion.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Nobody gives a f**k anymore, I guess.

[Hekate]

19. >snrk< Okay

:-)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Good to hear some sense for a change

It's nice when their foolish concepts get shot down.

[AngryOldDem]

13. I'm thinking about posting it on a wingnut site....

...just to see heads explode. But I know what they'll say...it's from CNN, so it CAN'T be true!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. There are none so blind as those who will not see

Sadly, in this case it's their children who pay the highest price. In my area their children (wingnuts) are a large portion of the teen pregnancies. I don't imagine we're all that different that most communities.

[wickerwoman]

31. That's my experience...

I have a big Catholic family- lots of aunts and uncles and 32 cousins- 25 of them female. Of the 26 female cousins (including me) 22 were raised to be atheists, 2 were raised strictly Catholic and 2 were raised by a born-again Christian fundie wingnut. None of the atheists were pregnant before 25. One of the Catholic girls got pregnant at 18 and had to drop her plans for college. She's a secretary now and has five kids she can barely support. Both of the fundie girls got pregnant in high school- the older one at 16 and the younger one at 14. And their brother got a girl pregnant at 15. There's a very strong correlation between strength of religious conviction and early preganancy across the board in my family. The price of ignorance...

[xultar]

14. Who would have thought that birth control would control births?

:crazy:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. Only those damn "liberals,"

They're making it so teens want to have sex! Without them the problem would cease and all would be right in the world. :eyes:

[fujiyama]

33. What's sort of amusing

and somewhat frustrating is even a study like this will not convince the fundies of the truth.

[Quantess]

18. Take it one step further: contraceptive use decreases abortion.

Gee, ya think? Using contraceptives decreases the number of unwanted pregnancies, so if there are fewer unwanted pregnancies, that would naturally mean fewer abortions. :think:

Nah, it makes too much sense. Can't be true.

[depakid]

20. Fewer unplanned pregnancies also means fewer birth defects

from things like lack of folic acid and alcohol or drugs (legal ones) that cause most of their damage before a woman even knows that she is pregnant.

But the far right doesn't care about any of this- which one reason why I call Pro-Suffering (along with anti-choice).

[Quantess]

32. Fornicators need to be punished with pregnancy.

Contraceptives are a way to cheat your way out of the wages of sin: unwanted pregnancy.

That's what it's all about, folks.

[depakid]

34. Suffer the children

I reckon that the far right misinterprets that one too.

Any rational human being has to wonder whether these sorts of people ever even bother to read the book(s) they profess to live by.

[alittlelark]

23. I'm Shocked!!! Information trumps propaganda?

WOW!

[VegasWolf]

24. Fortunately no one listens to that clown Bush! nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. And what is the teen pregnancy rate among fundy nutcases

compared to the rest of society?

[Vogon_Glory]

28. Rate As Low As Rest of Population in Teens, But Goes Up Later

I remember reading somewhere that a lot of graduates of so-called "abstinence-only" sex ed programs have pregnancy rates as low and occasionally sometimes lower as the rest of the population while those graduates are in their teens, but their unplanned pregnancy rates go up noticeably above that of the rest of the population when those grads get into their twenties.

I wish I could provide sources and links. Sorry.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. Interesting...

Thanks for the info!

[Vogon_Glory]

26. Right-wingers Aren't Celebrating Drop in Teen Pregnancies, Tho

Right-wingers don't seem to be celebrating the drop in teen pregnancies, though. People with the mindset that believes that pregnancy ought to be the punishment for sex outside of heterosexual marriage are undoubtedly seething in outrage. Many of them are on a tear about "cultural decadence" and about "deviant practices" like oral sex.

I think the rest of us ought to celebrate the drop in births to teen-aged mothers. More young women have more chances to finish high school and get starts on their careers. More young women will have chances for a later marriage and less chances for early marriages and possible divorce. More young women will have chances for bearing children they wanted to bear and love.

I should think that even that segment of the right that deplores unwanted babies ought to be joining us progressives in gratitude for this social trent.

[Quantess]

37. Yes. It's all about punishment.

In fundies minds, there should be no loopholes like contraceptives, to allow "sinners" to go about their lives scot free after fornicating.

"...that segment of the right that deplores unwanted babies ought to be joining us progressives in gratitude..."
No, the ultra-right LOVES unwanted babies (well, fetuses, anyway). Unwanted pregnancies are really exciting for them, because then they can rally against abortion. Once they're born, the interest wanes.

edited for spelling and grammar.

[leesa]

27. Well, duu-u-u-h. Did I have to pay for this study?

[distantearlywarning]

29. Amazing.

Who would have guessed it? (Certainly not the fundie nutjobs who claim to be very interested in ending abortions but also want to prevent women from having access to reliable contraception.)

[Quantess]

35. What fundies REALLY want is punishment for "sinners"

Contraceptives prevent fornicators from being punished with an unwanted pregnancy.