State by State for the highest teen birth rates!

[Brian R. VanCise]

Interesting article on where and what States are leading the
way for the highest teen birth rates.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28538524/?GT1=43001

 

[CoryKS]

Hey Mississippi! You shut your whore mouth when New Hampshire is talking!

/I kid

 

[terryl965]

Texas was not number one why?

 

[Carol]

Hey Mississippi! You shut your whore mouth when New Hampshire is talking!

Damn Skippy!!!

Said with love of course

 

[grydth]

Interesting article on where and what States are leading the
way for the highest teen birth rates.

Where have I been all these years? I didn't even know this was going on!

Around here, I have never seen a woman give birth to a teenager! All they have in this region are babies.

Those last couple months of pregnancy must be murder!

:angel:

 

[Makalakumu]

I wonder if they come out instinctively twitching texting thumbs...

 

[MA-Caver]

Heard about this on NPR and was sadden by it.
Said that some of the contributing influences are teen stars getting pregnant and the high costs of contraceptives.
I really wonder about the last one... I can go to Walmart and get a box of 3 Trojans for less than two bucks... don't seem that expensive to me... and I'm unemployed for crying out loud!
There are other influences that they're probably NOT mentioning.

Either way... education education education seems to be the thing lacking the most. IMO

 

[Carol]

Actually I don't think it's either costs or stars. Education plays a role but culture is even stronger.

I believe very strongly in the message of abstinence. The benefits are huge. However, I don't like the way the content is delivered in a lot of abstinence-only education plans. Much of the content talks about how birth control fails and how not having sex will mean you can be a good wife. That and the overtly Protestant nature of some familes mean that a lot of teenage girls feel that only the undesirable, slutty girls use birth control. They don't want to be seen as undesirable........but they still have sex.

I wish the education focused more on the pragmatic possibilities how the investments that you make as a young person (college, etc) can have huge payoffs throughout your life, and to make choices now that will give you the maximum freedoms and possibilities in the future. New England has a lot more families with college-educated parents so that message gets spread more readily. In the southern states where the parents are less educated, this message isn't getting across and the teen birth rates prove it.

 

[Cryozombie]

I think the real key to preventing this is twofold... stop Glorifying sex, AND stop demonizing it. Make it something that is normal, natural, can be talked about, without it being an in yo face rumpshaka' Rap video or Girls Gone Stupid commerical.