Adolescent Sexuality by Dr. Karen Rayne

We have some old friends staying with us right now with their granddaughter, who is almost one year old. We’ll call our friends the Sullivans, their daughter Hannah, and their granddaughter Beth. Here is the startling story of the Beth’s birth:

Hannah was 18, and a senior in high school. The Sullivans thought she might be sexually active, and offered to provide her with birth control, but she declined saying she was not having sex with her boyfriend.

And then Hannah started…gaining weight…most prominently in her tummy area. The Sullivans started wondering between themselves whether Hannah was pregnant or not. They dropped hints, tried to bring up the possibility obliquely. But Hannah did not seem to pick up on their hints, and never showed any sign of being pregnant. Except that her tummy grew a bit more every month.

Finally Mrs. Sullivan asked Hannah point-blank if she was pregnant. Hannah looked her mother in the eye and said no. Now, Mrs. Sullivan knew that Hannah had a tendency to lie. But she just didn’t think that Hannah could lie about something so big so completely. So she took her word for it.

Hannah was in a car accident, and the police officer asked her if she was pregnant, saying that if she was, he had to take her directly to the hospital. Hannah told the police officer no, she was not pregnant.

Hannah’s friends asked if she was pregnant, and she told every friend who asked, that no she was not pregnant.

You probably get the gist of where this story is going.

So the Sullivans went on vacation.  They drove three days to visit extended family, and on the day they arrived they got a phone call from Hannah in the hospital: “Mom, I had  baby.”  It had been Hannah’s plan that she would have the baby during the Sullivans’ well-timed trip, and that she would give it up for adoption before they came back.  But after the birth, she changed her mind.

The moral of this story: What incredible fortitude!  What strength and will!  Hannah is an amazing, powerful young woman.  When her determination is pointed in a supportive, meaningful direction, watch out world!

Many children and teenagers have this kind of willpower.  But adults, for whatever reason, aren’t able to see it in that light very often.  Far more commonly, adults label these children and teenagers as rebellious or deviant or liars.  Young people in these places are rarely praised for this gift and power they have of determination and strength - and so they are far more likely to see it as a negative personal trait that they should try and rid themselves of, rather than a gift and a responsibility that they can train and use.

Next time a child or a teenager you know does something that you are tempted to label as “rebellious” or “deviant” or even “bad,” stop for a minute.  How can you change your perception of this action, so that you can see where something good inside the child or teenager was misled or poorly utilized to get to this point.  Then speak to the good rather than the bad, and suggest how that positive quality could be used differently next time.

And remember Hannah and the will behind her decision and her ability to stay behind that decision through incredible difficulties over many months.

Yes, Virginia, there ARE teenagers who want to have a baby.

Yesterday Mommy B sent me to this story about Gloucester High, where the fad last year was to try and get pregnant. Is this a new trend? Nope. Is it surprising? Maybe, if you haven’t been paying attention. And will the school’s attempts to offer free birth control without parental permission help the situation? Absolutely not. But they should do it anyway.

I am not surprised by a group of girls making a pact to raise children together. High school girls have been trying to get pregnant since I was in high school fifteen years ago, although I doubt it was a new trend then. I understood the draw of deeply wanting a baby in high school, although I never went so far as to actually try and conceive one until just a few years later.

And here is where this issue gets deeply personal for me. I was young, by many standards, when my partner and I started trying to conceive. I was 21 when I got pregnant, but perhaps I looked younger. I got many snide comments from strangers about making choices because of what I wanted rather than what a baby would need. I got crass questions from acquaintances about whether I knew what caused this sort of “thing.”

And I have never taken well to anyone who calls my daughter a “thing.”

So I was a young mother. And many took me to be a young teenage mother. So they asked me, rudely, why I wanted to have a baby. I tended to give vague answers I thought would get them off my back as quickly as possible about wanting to care for the younger generation, etc. But the truth was, I wasn’t really sure why I wanted to have a baby. But I knew it in the same way I knew my partner and I were meant for each other. Could I justify myself? Not really. How can you ask someone to justify something that there is no justification for? When it comes down to it, what is the “right” reason for wanting to have a baby?

Two Gloucester High students who were willing to be interviewed postulated that the girls were trying to get pregnant because:

“They’re so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally.”

and

“No one’s offered them a better option.”

And those are probably not great reasons to want to have a baby. But as I’ve said: when it comes right down to it, what is a great reason?

Teenage girls who want to have babies will probably give much the same rambling, unsure answers to the “Why” question that I did. Some might say something vague about wanting someone to love and someone to love them back. But what do much older moms-to-be say about why they want a baby? Oh, that’s right, they’re not asked. It’s assumed that an older woman either has her reasons for wanting a baby or that it’s rude to ask. My point is that, unless you’re the woman’s therapist or partner, it’s rude to ask or conjecture about why teenagers or older women want babies.

However, there are often serious underlying issues when young women decide that they want to get pregnant. It is rarely a teenage woman who feels happy, supported, and loved who decides she wants to have a baby. But nothing can be gained from judging these young women’s choices - they have probably had their choices judged far too often already in their lives. And a pregnancy can not be stopped by providing a mother-to-be with birth control, because she won’t use it, regardless of her age.

So what to do?

Young women need to feel that they are (1) in control of their lives, (2) can make a positive impact on the world, and (3) that they are loved for who they are and who they are becoming. For that matter, young men need the same thing. And note the careful wording: Teenagers need these things, they are not casual desires.

Part of providing the control in need 1 is having access to free, effective birth control without parental knowledge or consent. Another part is providing more extensive sexuality education beyond the first year of high school. And there are lots of really cool ways to engage young women to meet need number 2. (Feel free to e-mail me if you need some suggestions!) As for need 3, I am sad that this is not among the most understood and most often met needs for teenagers. It can be parents, teachers, friends, siblings. Each of us needs someone to love us completely, but teenagers are in such a state of identity flux that they particularly need that kind of encompassing and supportive love.

Regrettably, the answer I am giving to the Gloucester High problem is not simple or easy to dispense for free (unlike condoms). But it is potentially life-changing for everyone involved.

Last week I wrote about a book for pregnant teens, and said I wish I had something iron clad to recommend instead. I’ve thought about that over the ensuing week, and realized that while I don’t have one single book to recommend, I do have several that when put together I think might cover all the bases. Here they are, in no particular order:

You Look Too Young to be a Mom Edited by Deborah Davis. I’ve briefly recommended this one before, but it will always bear repeating. Frankly, I’m surprised looking back over my past entries that I haven’t yet devoted an entire post to this fabulous book. But never fear, Gentle Reader, that post will be forth-coming! The second line of the title really says it all: Teen Mothers Speak Out on Love, Learning, and Success. It’s a must-read for a young mama just starting her journey.

The Essential Hip Mama: writing from the cutting edge of parenting Edited by Ariel Gore and Breeder: Real-Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers Edited by Ariel Gore and Bee Lavender. These are both good follow-ups to Deborah Davis’s book, and cover much of the same ground. But teen mothers just can’t get enough real-life, supporting images of young mothers.

The Hip Mama Survival Guide by Ariel Gore. This one is a bit dated (it was published in 1998), but it’s still got some good punch to it. It’s really just a fabulously supportive guide for young parenting. It doesn’t cover all of the physical basics - like whether an infant having a fever of 101 is a problem or not - but it does a fabulous job of addressing the emotional hurdles that young mothers run into.

You might be able to tell that I like Ariel Gore’s stuff. Her fabulous, 15-year-old zine can be found here. And I loved this book - cried as I read it the first time because it resonated so strongly with me- called The Mother Trip: Hip Mama’s Guide to Staying Sane in the Chaos of Motherhood She also has a book about parenting teenagers which I found good, if not as fabulously grand as her parenting books for young parents.

After this, you need to move on to books for new parents regardless of their age. Here are some parenting books I really like and think should be staples on any parent’s bookshelf when their children are young:

You Are Your Child’s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. This is a fabulous book that talks about child development and how parents can ideally support it from birth through age six.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Arlene Hathaway, Sandee E. Murkoff, and Heidi Eisenberg. This is just a basic book for when a young mama has questions. If she likes it, there’s a whole series that’s decent. There are many others that will do in it’s place if this one doesn’t appeal. For example, The Pregnancy Book: A Month-by-Month Guide by William and Martha Sears will also provide quite nicely.

And then, because most of these books are written with the mother in mind, my favorite book to recommend to soon-to-be-Papas is The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott and Jennifer Ash. This fabulous book goes into the details of how to become a daddy and a fabulous support for the soon-t0-be-mama. It’s the only book I take it upon myself to give to every soon-to-be father I know.

Hopefully this list will get you started on providing a fabulous library of parenting books for your favorite fabulous pregnant or parenting teen!

Rachel Brignoni set out to write a book to help pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers think through what they want in life and then go out and get it. And she stayed true to that goal throughout this little blue-covered book.

I really like Brignoni’s premise, her goal. Pregnant and parening teenagers need all the help they can get in finding their own footing in this very anti-pregnant-and-parenting-teens society of ours. I was a young mother, although not a teenage mother, and felt some of the public disapproval and negativity that actual teenage mothers feel at very high levels. I feel for these young women, and I am absolutely compelled to cheer on anyone who works to help them gain self-confidence and self-efficacy in their parenting abilities. And so, in that vein, I am absolutely delighted by Brignoni’s book. She’s done a great job of encouraging young women to trust themselves to be good parents and to go out and create a good life for themselves and their children.

Nevertheless (and you just had to know that was coming, didn’t you?), I am concerned the book won’t speak to many teenagers who actually get knocked up and decide to keep the baby. It’s a good book - it really is - but it doesn’t speak a language that most pregnant teenagers have ever heard before. So I worry that there aren’t many pregnant teenagers who will spend enough of their very limited time to get past Brignoni’s language in order to internalize her message.

For example, Brignoni includes a CD with the book that has a very heartfelt, very sweet, soft rock tribute to teenage mothers. And, of course, teenagers’ music taste varies widely, so it would be hard to find one song to reach them all. But these songs sound more like a generic Celine Dion than anything currently popular (like Lil Wayne, for example).

This is the problem throughout Brignoni’s book. While she is always looking to engage teenage mothers in deep conversation that will allow them to see themselves and their goals more clearly, she does so with a marked inability to reach out to teenagers where many of them are.

So for a teenager who can relate to the language found in adult self-help books, I recommend Brignoni’s Hope…Joy (and a Few Little Thoughts) for Pregnant Teens. And indeed, this may be the best option out there right now to help and support a pregnant teenager in getting a grip on her life and moving forward in a positive way. I just wish I had another option to suggest that spoke a bit more directly and productively to today’s pregnant teens.

(Written by guest blogger Wendy Harlowe.) 

First, again, please feel free to e-mail me privately at wendyharlowe@gmail.com if you don’t want to post comments here. I look forward to hearing from you. I’ve been gratified by the response to my first post, including comments and private e-mail correspondence. (Over the years I’ve worried about being too “in your face” with sexual issues, felt judged for having a lack of boundaries … part of what I think is important is for other survivors to know they can go on to have “normal” healthy sex lives, which I didn’t think possible for many years.)

Regards biology, know that I am not an academician on this topic (or any other topic, for that matter), but as the years go by I’ve thought about it more and more. There are two academic fields that cover this topic: sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. My interest is in human sexual behavior that can be explained through biology and evolution (the belief that animals act in ways to maximize the spread of their genes). And my thoughts are somewhat disjointed and inarticulated. I’ve never had an outlet for real discussion on this topic, and am very interested in your thoughts.

Some facts are obvious: the bodies of girls/women are best ready to have children in their mid-teens through their 20s. Our American/western culture has evolved to discourage childbearing until at least the age of 18/19, and encourages waiting longer than that. Women’s entry into the commercial workforce is hampered by childbearing and childrearing. This childbearing capacity is one of the factors for the disparity between the financial income of men and women.

Although sweeping generalities can always cause problems, the testosterone factor means that men are more hardwired for sex with multiple partners, and women are more hardwired to need protection (of course, I’m running into trouble right here, because the social structures have so much to do with this … if the village truly raised children, women wouldn’t need the individual protector that comes with monogamy).

Men are hardwired to be attracted to young women because they are more capable of healthy reproduction. There is no limit to the number of children one man can sire, but women are limited, physically. Men want monogamy because its the only way to ensure their progeny. Women have accepted monogamy because of the “protector” benefits it delivers. (I don’t believe that most people operate in this way because of conscious belief … I think the marriage/monogamy factor was consciously developed many, many years ago to ensure men’s lineage, linked with the development of Christianity and political power … I think today many people live very happily in monogamous marriages; I don’t think its wrong, I just don’t think its necessary for happiness and moral/ethical living.)

I do believe our human species is evolving. One hundred and fifty years ago, it was completely acceptable to own another human being. Slavery still exists today, but it is illegal and universally condemned. Although women still don’t have basic human freedoms in many parts of the world, human rights campaigns are seen as necessary, even while there is such a huge amount of work for them to do. (another digression … many people believe that pre-Christian nature religions created a far better world, less war, no patriarchy … I think that might be true in some times and in some places … I don’t think it is a given, but my jury is still out on that topic)

Because of this evolution, I do believe our species might be able to progress to the point of acting “above and beyond” those hard-wired biological “needs,” and there is a lot of evidence to signify this: women’s increased sexual assertiveness; faithful and monogamous men who stay with their partners far beyond said partner’s reproductive years; the trend among educated, more affluent couples to have fewer children … also the fact that the nerd/geek population is now more sexually attractive to women, rather than simply excellent physical specimens of the male gender, because success in our world is oftentimes so much more mental than physical.

But here’s what has gotten me thinking about more in recent years: I’ve played a small part in the child protective system, and seen what is so easy to judge … people having children with no thought to their ability to raise them … again and again … having children taken from them by the courts, and continuing on to bear more children. There is a horror to this, and yet … at some basic, instinctual level, we humans are breeders … and accepting that fact in some ways makes it easier to see, makes it more understandable, even if not forgivable. (well, I doubt in the big picture that there is anything unforgiveable, but I digress far too often in this meandering post …)

I suppose, also, that one’s spiritual / religious beliefs come into play here. Although I see Darwinism in human sexual behavior, I also believe in a Divine Spirit, a unifying oneness to us all. Wierdly, I fall into the intelligent design faction, although I certainly don’t want to be lumped in with those who oppose teaching evolution in the schools. Its just all interesting to me … could be seen as so anti-feminist, but over the years this instinctual male and female behavior does make sense at the instinctual level. I think as I have learned more about Buddhism, also, it becomes easier to observe and not be so emotionally attached to judgment.

What do you think? It’s clear to me that I’m not clear in my thinking, but I have been inspired by Chris Smithers’ ditty (” The whole thing works like clockwork over time”):

Origin of Species, by Chris Smithers (you can find him singing this on YouTube, wonderful melody)

Eve told Adam, snakes! I’ve had ‘em!
Let’s get outta here
We’ll raise our family someplace outta town
They left the garden just in time
With the landlord cussin’, right behind
They headed East and finally settled down
One thing led to another …
A bunch of sons, one killed his brother
They kicked him out with nothin’ but his clothes
But the human race survives
‘Cause the brothers all found wives
Where they came from ain’t nobody knows

Then came the Flood, go figure,
Just like New Orleans, only bigger
No one who couldn’t swim would make it through
The lucky ones were on a boat,
Think circus, then make it float
And hope nobody pulls the plug on you
How they fed that crowd is a mystery
It ain’t down in the history
It’s a cinch they didn’t live on cakes and jam
But lions don’t eat cabbage,
And in spite of that old adage
I’ve never seen one lie down with a lamb.

Charlie Darwin looked so far
Into the way things are
He caught aglimpse of God’s unfolding plan
God said “I’ll make some DNA,
They’ll use it any way they want
From paramecium right up to man
They’ll have sex, and mix up sections
Of their code; they’ll have mutations
The whole thing works like clockwork over time
I’ll just sit back in the shade
While everyone gets laid
That’s what I call intelligent design.”

Yes, you and your cat named Felix
Are both wrapped up in that double helix
It’s what we call intelligent design.

*********

But, let me make clear, I don’t believe in Adam and Eve! The whole snake bit in the bible is a thinly-veiled attack on women and feminine spirituality … the asp/snake was a sacred animal and image in the Goddess-worshiping cultures of pre-Christianity. But, I do enjoy the song. Gawd sitting back in the shade, while everyone gets laid. Who can doubt that?!?

I have been thinking a lot recently about teenage moms.

I wasn’t a teenage mom myself - I was 21 when I got pregnant - but I looked like a teenager, and was often treated like a teenage mom. In other words, strangers felt they could make derisive comments about (a) my assumed inability to parent, as attributed to my age, (b) my assumed lack of responsibility, as evidenced by inability to use birth control, and (c) my assumed poor choice in a job as a nanny, because clearly I was too young to have my own child.

The thing was, I knew I could parent well, that I was responsible, and that I wasn’t too young to have my first daughter. I had an inner core of strength and belief in myself and my little family that I’m not sure many teenagers have.

The way to help families, even families with teenage parents, is to hold them, strengthen them, support them. Negative and assumptive comments by strangers, acquaintances, or friends do not support families.

I am reminded of a book I like, You Look Too Young to be a Mom, by Deborah Davis. It’s a collection of writings by teenage mothers and adults who use to be teenage mothers. Here is one poem that I think expresses teenage pregnancy well:

#9 Bus by Caitlin Crane

He unfolds like a Japanese fan

and I can feel his slippery feet

kicking my ribs like fence posts,

his head growing between my bones,

jumping with hiccups.

I can feel where his heart is beating

and where his fists, juicy plums,

beat out moon-music.

I want to move my swollen feet,

dance,

brave and hysterical,

down the narrow aisle.

I want to say to

this woman sitting next to me,

watching rain from the open window drip onto her sweater,

“My son is signing, can you hear him?”

To the bus driver, who has never heard of reggae,

who spent the seventies in a cathedral with Elvis,

I want to say,

“Listen, he is singing God songs.”

To the pretty girl with red hair and two babies,

who drinks orange juice out of a water bottle,

and coughs into her fist

I want to say,

“Why are your eyes apologetic?”

But when I turn to speak,

my mouth open and half a word hanging out,

I can see it in their skin.

Their faces thin over hard lines,

over, “Get her out of the welfare office, get her out of my wallet.”

Over, “Another one.”

And, “Poor baby, poor girl. She doesn’t even have a chance.

My son is coming,

And I don’t have the time to wait for you.

My son is coming

and he will dance to your echoes of injustice,

his face to the sun.

(Written by guest blogger JustAnotherTeen.) 

“You seem very open, honest, and liberal, but you depict your parents as fairly rigid and conservative. How much do you think your parents impacted who you are and how did they do that? I like the person you present yourself as and I sense that you like yourself as well. Do your parents like you as you are or do you hide most of what you have shared with us?”

As I mentioned in the response above, I think some of my attitude and outlook on life are simply the opposite of my parents because I saw them every single day and I wanted to be different. For instance, my parents are often late everywhere they go, so therefore I have a tendency to be early for everything. I think my parents impacted me a lot in some ways, mostly because I consciously tried to be different than they are. My parents know somewhat that I am do not hold their values, but not the scale of which I disavow their narrow-minded ideas. For instance, they do not know that I am bi-sexual. They do not fully realize that I have had sex. I did not even tell them I was dating someone for half a year.

“What do you think are the basic criteria for people (teens) to have and be competent at in order to be able to make a healthy decision to be fully sexual? When do you think teens are harmed by sex too early or with the wrong people? Have you seen much of the problems that can be created by inappropriately early sexuality or do you think there is such a thing as inappropriately early sexuality?”

I think that the age of sexual maturity (being able to make the decision to have sex for the right reasons, not just peer pressure or such) depends greatly on the individual person, the way they were raised, and their partner. I think both partners need to understand that although sex feels good on a physical and emotional level, there can be serious consequences no matter what form or forms of protection are used. They need to understand different forms of contraception and be comfortable with each other and themselves. It should not be a spur of the moment thing in my opinion, but something that is discussed with maturity. That said, I doubt very seriously that any teenage couples are really that prepared, myself and my girlfriend included! I think teens can easily be harmed by sex with the wrong person, especially if there is a large age gap or something else that gives one partner authority. That is not to say that a 15 year old and a 17 year old should not be having sex, again it comes back to the individual relationship. As for problems with early sexuality, I think they are often the same for sex at any age: unwanted pregnancy and STIs, etc. Also, I believe younger people in general have a higher risk of being emotionally scarred but when I think about it, and I have no experience with this, it seems like older people (i.e. Over 20) can be scarred as well from bad relationships, sexual or otherwise.

“Your girlfriend’s mom seems to have ‘come around’ and is coping adequately with your relationship. Do you think there is a down side to this arrangement? What would be the parameters you would want to set up today if you were the parent of a teenager yourself?”

If there is a downside, it would be that she sometimes seems overbearing about making sure we have birth control. I am fully capable of getting my own protection so it just gets annoying when she keeps asking if we need condoms, although I think she has realized in the past few months that I am capable of getting my own and has stopped asking. If I were a parent, I would want to be open about all matters of sexuality but also I would understand if they did not tell me when they started having sex or something like that. I would like to know their partners but also understand that this may not always happen. I think a parent of a teenager should be more of an advisor than a dictator, there at all times to talk but not to rule. However, as I get older my views may change but I hope to be a good father (of adopted children) one day.

Again, I really appreciate everyone who sent in questions, I really had to think about my answers! I enjoyed blogging here for the past two weeks and would like to do it sometime in the future if I or someone else can come up with ideas for new posts! Thanks to Karen for allowing me this opportunity, and if anyone still has questions, that e-mail address is still usable!

I loved Juno.  I thought it was a smart, interesting, and real portrayal of teenage pregnancy.  What struck me as surprising was that Juno is really a movie for adults about a teenager.  It’s more common to see movies about teenagers for teenagers.

There are plenty of positive, even rave reviews of Juno.  Mostly the praise centers around fully-formed portrayals of smart teenagers (mostly of Juno and her boyfriend Paulie).  Other aspects worthy of praise are the portrayals of the relationship between the adopting parents, the discussion of the difficulties of adoption, and the portrayal of the parent/teen relationship between Juno and her parents.

The negative reviews of Juno - although there are few of them - mostly remark on the “unrealistic” nature of Juno’s wit, that is that the character has an adult’s wit rather than a teenager’s wit.  While I sympathize with this critic (particularly the first 15 to 20 minutes seem like one sarcastic, well-timed comment after another), I disagree with it.  Almost all of the characters in this movie are particularly witty and sarcastic, and Juno does not seem to be more able in this area than her family and friends.  This is probably true of most real teenagers as well - their sarcasm and wit are generally similar to the people who they are surrounded with.

The sarcasm and wit, interestingly, extend to everyone except for Vanessa, the woman who Juno has chosen to be her baby’s adoptive mother.  Vanessa is also portrayed as the one most capable parent for the baby - not to say that all of the other characters wouldn’t be passable parents, just not as good as Vanessa.  I haven’t heard much discussion about this particular point, and I wonder if the screenwriter, Diablo Cody, meant anything by it?

So Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. At sixteen. She announced this apparently news-worthy information through OK! Magazine, and everyone from the Huffington Post to MTV feels compelled to weigh in on this one. So, I figured, why not me too? I mean, this is clearly the biggest teenage sex scandal of 2007 (given how close to the end of the year it is, I feel pretty comfortable saying that).

So people are outraged. They are railing against Britney for being a bad role model older sister. They are railing against Jamie Lynn’s mother Lynn Spears for not teaching either of her daughters about birth control or morality (depending on which side of that fence they’re on). They are railing against Jamie Lynn for not making good choices. They are railing against abstinence-only “sex education” for not teaching about birth control. They are railing against comprehensive sex education for not teaching teenagers to wait until marriage to have sex. The list goes on.

But here’s the thing: about 750,000 teenagers get pregnant in the United States every year. About half that number of teenagers give birth every year. Some of those teenagers are actually pre-teenagers, and are as young as 10 or 11. What I’m trying to say is that Jamie Lynn is hardly alone. While I understand that it useful for people to latch on to one emblem of the problem and focus on her, it is inappropriate to do that in this case.

Yelling and screaming our heads off about what a poor mother Lynn Spears is, about what a poor mother and sister Britney Spears is, and how horrible it is that Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant will do nothing to help the real issue of teenage pregnancy or teenage parenting.

On the other hand, teaching teenagers real information about sex will address the issue at hand.  So let’s spend our energy doing that instead.

So the liberal blog-o-sphere is simply agog with the CDC announcement that the adolescent birth rate has risen for the first time in fourteen years (it had been steadily falling). Bush’s abstinence-only “sex education” policy has been taken to the cleaners with this announcement. Here’s a quote from the CDC announcement that I think sums everything up nicely:

The report shows that between 2005 and 2006, the birth rate for teenagers aged 15 - 19 rose 3 percent, from 40.5 live births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2005 to 41.9 births per 1,000 in 2006. This follows a 14-year downward trend in which the teen birth rate fell by 34 percent from its all-time peak of 61.8 births per 1,000 in 1991.

However, if you read deeper into the announcement, you find (as the Reverend Debra Haffner points out), that births rose among all women - not just teenagers. In fact, the total fertility rate is at the highest point is 1971, and is above replacement rate for the first time since then. The other serious numbers that come out of this announcement is that the Cesarean delivery rate rose again - indicating a 50% increase over the last 10 years. This is coupled with a rise in preterm births and a rise in low birth-weight. These are all much more alarming statistics than a very slight increase in the adolescent birth rate.

Now, I am not one to miss an opportunity to slam abstinence-only “sex education.” In general, I am just color-me-pink when big-time statistics like this come out indicating that the 1990’s had better sex education than the 2000’s. But I don’t agree that these numbers are enough to do that. The rise actually just takes us back to the 2004 adolescent birth rate (and is still lower than the 2003 adolescent birth rate). Many more questions need to be asked here: Did the abortion rate change? How many of these pregnancies were planned? (Yes, teenagers do plan pregnancies, and the biggest increase was among 18 - 19 year olds, who are the most likely teenagers to plan a pregnancy.) Did condom or hormonal birth control usage change among teenagers between 2004 and 2005? What about access for teenagers to abortion, condoms, or hormonal birth control?

I am also suspicious of people who rail against teenage births in general. Teenage parents aren’t all bad, and I’m tired of them being portrayed that way. The real issue for me is unplanned pregnancies, and yes, most teenage pregnancies are unplanned. The real issue is lack of real information, lack of access to reproductive health care, lack of self-efficacy around sexuality, and the highly overblown image of sex that prevails in our culture. None of these failures are exclusively the result of abstinence-only “sex education” (although it certainly hasn’t helped).

All of us - even those who support comprehensive sex education - need to acknowledge the role that we play, every day, in our society’s sex education. Do we talk openly and appropriately with people of all ages about sex and sexuality? Are you comfortable bringing up the topic of birth control when a young person you know gets into a serious relationship? Are you comfortable providing that birth control?

This is an area where you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Where do you stand?