Teen Pregnancy: what are we doing wrong?

[rdean]

Anytime you listen to right wing conservatives, you are bound to fail. It's all they know and what they are especially good at.

 

[Douger]

Give them some links. Once they see where the "money shot" is "supposed" to wind up, the risk of pregnancy will be dramatically reduced.
The cost of shampoo, however, will likely increase.

 

[Old Rocks]

Considering the fact that girls are reaching physical maturity much earlier than past generations, the fact that teen pregnancies are still lower is a feat in and of itself.

But, we do need more work.

A lot more work. Even one teen pregnancy where there are not two parents to care for the child is one too many.

Point well taken about the ealier sexual maturity. Also access that was not even dreamed of 30 years ago on the net to explicit sexual material is a factor. Going to be interesting as to what overall effect this is going to have on the mores of the coming two or three generations.

 

[nitroz]

Well, I'm going to be painfully honest.

This is what happens when religious groups and such make the struggle to block the morning after pill or such contraception. And you have to be over 17 go get it over the counter also.
Now look at all the kids who are going to have lives not worth living as a result. I honestly don't blame the parents for being human or doing human things, but this could be prevented if contraception was offered on a rare occasion. If anything, religious groups who pushed for the ban on contraception should be held responsible. They are the main problem with our pregnancy rates.

We are only human.

Typical far left attitude. Trying to find 'responsibility' everywhere but in the individual. And just what do you mean by "lives not worth living"?

Well, what should they do when they get pregnant and can't take contraceptives?
You are punishing them for being human because EVERY person has the urge to have sex. (This was confirmed through psychology).

You can't blame people for acting human.


And "lives not worth living" means the kids might have miserable lives due to their parents not being able to support them. That is all more reason on why to make contraception legal for teens.

 

[Katzndogz]

No one finds it unusual that if kids can pop babies their lives aren't worth living.

This isn't human. This is really acting like animals. There is just nothing they can do to control the urge to have sex. It is overwhelming. Without it, life isn't worth living.

This is deranged. It reduces human beings below even a primal urge to propagate. There is nothing left. Boys and girls are nothing but walking genitalia.

 

[Unkotare]

Well, what should they do when they get pregnant and can't take contraceptives?.

You don't think that maybe, just maybe, the time to think about contraception is before you have sex? Even if it's just before? Maybe? Hmmm?

 

[Unkotare]

You are punishing them for being human because EVERY person has the urge to have sex. (This was confirmed through psychology).

You can't blame people for acting human.

Then why is rape illegal? Why punish people who have the urge to have sex and can't find anyone to cooperate with them? It's only human to want sex. It's also human to resort to violence when you can't get what you want. You can't blame people for acting human, right? Right?


While we're at it, why is stealing food illegal? Why is slaughtering an entire family so you can live in their house illegal? Why is it illegal to kill people who look different than you and therefore frighten you into believing they represent a potential threat? Why is it illegal to take a shit in the middle of a public street? Why is it illegal to set a car on fire if you are cold?

Come on, we're just human after all! We need to have everything we want exactly when we want it, exactly how we want it, with no responsibilities or consequences!

 

[Unkotare]

And "lives not worth living" means the kids might have miserable lives due to their parents not being able to support them.

Well, if their lives are not worth living then why don't we send federal troops out to kill anyone who grew up poor or had shitty parents? Be doing them a favor, right? Right?

 

[Sunshine]

Hmmm.. Perhaps the LORD was unto something when He talked about not fornicating and waiting for marriage to give our bodies to one another? You know... that love thing?

We teach children in public school that sex is ok as long as you have protection. That's giving them a foot in - why should we be surprised?

What if every American parent talked to their children and told them they are so precious, so loved, and so cherished, that they should wait until they find that perfect someone who loves them and get married?

It's the same from the beginning. Sin leads to sin leads to sin. And we are all prone to it. We need God's help whether people want to admit it or not.

People like to tag God as "bad" or having wrong rules, or even worse, etc. The reality is that He loves us so much, he's set things a certain way - not to harm us, not to make us suffer - but to help and guide us, and for the sake of love.

Just my $.02 on it.

.


.

I don't think it's the foot that's going in!

 

[Sunshine]

i would be careful knocking single mothers....real careful

What?
That would be taking it the wrong way completely.
That is like saying soup sucks because you have no spoon in the house.

A mother is a mother. A father is a father, they are not one and the same.
I listed facts. And the data is indisputable.

Quoting even indisputable facts can get you labeled a racist. You will be soon enough if you aren't already. I know a lot of black social workers in the Nashville area, and the agenda is to increase their numbers. I am not even going to look for links, they may be there, or they may not. There are enough black social workers that if they thought unwed teenage childbirth in blacks was an issue, they would be doing more to slow it down. And they just don't. It isn't about morality. It isn't about the economy. It is about increasing their numbers. Think about it. At the current rates, how long until blacks are a clear majority in the US? Of course, they do have the Hispanics to contend with.

 

[Unkotare]

Think about it. At the current rates, how long until blacks are a clear majority in the US?

Um, never?

 

[Sunshine]

Think about it. At the current rates, how long until blacks are a clear majority in the US?

Um, never?

Denial in its purest form.

 

[Unkotare]

Think about it. At the current rates, how long until blacks are a clear majority in the US?

Um, never?

Denial in its purest form.

You mentioned "current rates." Did you bother to look at "current rates"? Did you look at percentage of population, fertility rates? Mortality rates? Abortion rates? Relative growth rates of other demographics and immigration?

Is this like your figures about US population that you just made up and guessed hilariously wrong? Or like your assumptions about "those of us who have been to China know better" that made you look so much the fool on a previous thread? You can't go on and on about facts and figures if you have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

 

[nitroz]

You are punishing them for being human because EVERY person has the urge to have sex. (This was confirmed through psychology).

You can't blame people for acting human.

Then why is rape illegal? Why punish people who have the urge to have sex and can't find anyone to cooperate with them? It's only human to want sex. It's also human to resort to violence when you can't get what you want. You can't blame people for acting human, right? Right?


While we're at it, why is stealing food illegal? Why is slaughtering an entire family so you can live in their house illegal? Why is it illegal to kill people who look different than you and therefore frighten you into believing they represent a potential threat? Why is it illegal to take a shit in the middle of a public street? Why is it illegal to set a car on fire if you are cold?

Come on, we're just human after all! We need to have everything we want exactly when we want it, exactly how we want it, with no responsibilities or consequences!

Touche

I guess where I'm getting at is that the sex was at eachother'sconsent. Why punish them for consentual sex?


As for what you explained, thats all true and I'm not afraid to admit that you are right.
I just don't know how to tread on that subject entirely.

 

[alan1]

Putting Teen Pregnancy in Perspective | The Nation

We can only gesture toward the myriad factors causing this problem, but here are some likely ones: lack of knowledge about and access to affordable contraception (one in five sexually active teenage girls do not use any kind of birth control); lack of access to abortion-providers in 87 percent of American counties; increased immigration from nations where teen pregnancy is more the norm; and even high poverty rates that cause some girls to see motherhood as the only viable path to adulthood, since a college education and decent job are unavailable to them.

The good news is that the American teen birth rate has steadily decreased over the past seventy years, despite year-to-year ups and downs. The bottom line, though, is that the United States remains an outlier not only on the teen birth rate but on teen pregnancy and abortion, too, which occur far more often here than in European nations. Clearly, our hot-potato reproductive rights debate isn’t solving these problems, which is just one of many good reasons why we should ratchet down the politicization of this public health issue and take a common sense prevention approach, one that accepts that over 95 percent of Americans have premarital sex.

Considering the fact that girls are reaching physical maturity much earlier than past generations, the fact that teen pregnancies are still lower is a feat in and of itself.

But, we do need more work.

70% of black children are raised without a father.
Black teen pregnancy has been historically double compared to white teens..in the 1990's it almost reached 25%!!! 1 in 4!!
Today it is still better than 1 in 10.

In blacks, it is two things - an amoral culture. And girls without fathers.
I have a 21 year old daughter. When she was a teenager she of course had several boy friends. I watched everything like a hawk. I did what most fathers did...I intimidated the boyfriends to the point they could barely talk to me without sweating. I wanted them nervous, I wanted them to know that at no point did my daughter belong to them - she belonged to me.

White girls, I have always wanted to know the relation to the number of pregnancies to the number of white girls without a father in the home also.
Consider a study done in 1995 that showed that 97% of all girls who stated that their father was in the home said that their relationship with their father contributed to their decisions about sexual activity.
This same study showed that white girls are FIVE times more likely to be a teen mother in a single parent home than with both parents.

Source: Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. "Facing the Challenges of Fragmented Families." The Philanthropy Roundtable 9.1 (1995): 21.

Speaking strictly from personal experience and as the father of girls from a divorced family, the following is merely anecdotal.
After my divorce, I ended up as a single father with custody of two daughters. The youngest did decide to live with her mother after she achieved the age of 13. Despite the split family situation, both I and my ex-wife remained active and involved in our daughter's lives as they progressed through their teen years. Both of us were engaged and giving the same message that a pregnancy would not be a good thing for them. Open dialogue, honest communication and love for them as the foundation.
I truly believe that the best preventative of teen pregnancy is active involvement by both parents even if the family is separated. An intact family unit is preferable but barring that, both the father and mother need to be involved.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Thats easy.

Stop having sex with teenagers.

 

[Sunshine]

Putting Teen Pregnancy in Perspective | The Nation

We can only gesture toward the myriad factors causing this problem, but here are some likely ones: lack of knowledge about and access to affordable contraception (one in five sexually active teenage girls do not use any kind of birth control); lack of access to abortion-providers in 87 percent of American counties; increased immigration from nations where teen pregnancy is more the norm; and even high poverty rates that cause some girls to see motherhood as the only viable path to adulthood, since a college education and decent job are unavailable to them.

The good news is that the American teen birth rate has steadily decreased over the past seventy years, despite year-to-year ups and downs. The bottom line, though, is that the United States remains an outlier not only on the teen birth rate but on teen pregnancy and abortion, too, which occur far more often here than in European nations. Clearly, our hot-potato reproductive rights debate isn’t solving these problems, which is just one of many good reasons why we should ratchet down the politicization of this public health issue and take a common sense prevention approach, one that accepts that over 95 percent of Americans have premarital sex.

Considering the fact that girls are reaching physical maturity much earlier than past generations, the fact that teen pregnancies are still lower is a feat in and of itself.

But, we do need more work.

70% of black children are raised without a father.
Black teen pregnancy has been historically double compared to white teens..in the 1990's it almost reached 25%!!! 1 in 4!!
Today it is still better than 1 in 10.

In blacks, it is two things - an amoral culture. And girls without fathers.
I have a 21 year old daughter. When she was a teenager she of course had several boy friends. I watched everything like a hawk. I did what most fathers did...I intimidated the boyfriends to the point they could barely talk to me without sweating. I wanted them nervous, I wanted them to know that at no point did my daughter belong to them - she belonged to me.

White girls, I have always wanted to know the relation to the number of pregnancies to the number of white girls without a father in the home also.
Consider a study done in 1995 that showed that 97% of all girls who stated that their father was in the home said that their relationship with their father contributed to their decisions about sexual activity.
This same study showed that white girls are FIVE times more likely to be a teen mother in a single parent home than with both parents.

Source: Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. "Facing the Challenges of Fragmented Families." The Philanthropy Roundtable 9.1 (1995): 21.

Speaking strictly from personal experience and as the father of girls from a divorced family, the following is merely anecdotal.
After my divorce, I ended up as a single father with custody of two daughters. The youngest did decide to live with her mother after she achieved the age of 13. Despite the split family situation, both I and my ex-wife remained active and involved in our daughter's lives as they progressed through their teen years. Both of us were engaged and giving the same message that a pregnancy would not be a good thing for them. Open dialogue, honest communication and love for them as the foundation.
I truly believe that the best preventative of teen pregnancy is active involvement by both parents even if the family is separated. An intact family unit is preferable but barring that, both the father and mother need to be involved.

Ideally that is true. But given what I have seen on a daily basis for the last 22 years, that is a mere pipe dream.

 

[alan1]

Putting Teen Pregnancy in Perspective | The Nation

70% of black children are raised without a father.
Black teen pregnancy has been historically double compared to white teens..in the 1990's it almost reached 25%!!! 1 in 4!!
Today it is still better than 1 in 10.

In blacks, it is two things - an amoral culture. And girls without fathers.
I have a 21 year old daughter. When she was a teenager she of course had several boy friends. I watched everything like a hawk. I did what most fathers did...I intimidated the boyfriends to the point they could barely talk to me without sweating. I wanted them nervous, I wanted them to know that at no point did my daughter belong to them - she belonged to me.

White girls, I have always wanted to know the relation to the number of pregnancies to the number of white girls without a father in the home also.
Consider a study done in 1995 that showed that 97% of all girls who stated that their father was in the home said that their relationship with their father contributed to their decisions about sexual activity.
This same study showed that white girls are FIVE times more likely to be a teen mother in a single parent home than with both parents.

Source: Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. "Facing the Challenges of Fragmented Families." The Philanthropy Roundtable 9.1 (1995): 21.

Speaking strictly from personal experience and as the father of girls from a divorced family, the following is merely anecdotal.
After my divorce, I ended up as a single father with custody of two daughters. The youngest did decide to live with her mother after she achieved the age of 13. Despite the split family situation, both I and my ex-wife remained active and involved in our daughter's lives as they progressed through their teen years. Both of us were engaged and giving the same message that a pregnancy would not be a good thing for them. Open dialogue, honest communication and love for them as the foundation.
I truly believe that the best preventative of teen pregnancy is active involvement by both parents even if the family is separated. An intact family unit is preferable but barring that, both the father and mother need to be involved.

Ideally that is true. But given what I have seen on a daily basis for the last 22 years, that is a mere pipe dream.

I wouldn't call what I've lived a "pipe dream".

 

[Sunshine]

Speaking strictly from personal experience and as the father of girls from a divorced family, the following is merely anecdotal.
After my divorce, I ended up as a single father with custody of two daughters. The youngest did decide to live with her mother after she achieved the age of 13. Despite the split family situation, both I and my ex-wife remained active and involved in our daughter's lives as they progressed through their teen years. Both of us were engaged and giving the same message that a pregnancy would not be a good thing for them. Open dialogue, honest communication and love for them as the foundation.
I truly believe that the best preventative of teen pregnancy is active involvement by both parents even if the family is separated. An intact family unit is preferable but barring that, both the father and mother need to be involved.

Ideally that is true. But given what I have seen on a daily basis for the last 22 years, that is a mere pipe dream.

I wouldn't call what I've lived a "pipe dream".

Expecting that everyone else lives what you have IS a pipe dream. You haven't been where I've been nor have you seen what I've seen. If you had, you would agree. Do you really think that chick with the 15 kids on that other thread could or every would? I don't.

 

[Unkotare]

You haven't been where I've been nor have you seen what I've seen. If you had, you would agree.

Oh, here we go again...