This week I was channel surfing and stumbled upon a show called “16 and Pregnant” on MTV.  It documents a teenager’s life from the moment she finds out that she’s pregnant to the birth of the baby, and everything in between.  While watching the show you can’t help but think how young and inexperienced the teenager is and not ready to take on such a big responsibility so prematurely.  The show also got me thinking about teen pregnancy in general because rates in the United States have recently increased.  There are differing opinions on how to prevent teen pregnancy, but regardless it’s a social issue we must confront for the well being of young people and their babies. 

In January, 2009 a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that there were significant increases in teen pregnancy in 26 states in 2006, ending a 15 year decline.  According to the report “there were 435,436 births to mothers aged 15–19 years in the United States, a birth rate of 41.9 per 1,000 women in this age group.”  Regionally, the northeast has the lowest and the south and southwest have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

The rate of teen pregnancy has many immediate and long-term social and economic costs.  Teen moms are more prone to drop out of highschool, be single parents, have high rates of preterm birth and their children have a greater chance of being in foster care, victims of abuse and neglect, drop out of highschool, get incarcerated or be in poor health. Youth in under-represented groups and those in foster care have a greater likelihood of getting pregnant and chances increase that a child of a teen mom will have a child herself as a teenager. 

There are a number of factors that could be influencing the increase in pregnancies.  They include a rise in highly publicized teen pregnancies, the result of poorly performing abstinence-only programs, and a disproportionate number of pregnancies among teenagers of color.

Ending teen pregnancy gives young people a greater chance to succeed in adult life.  However there is a lot of debate about how to successfully prevent it.  During the Bush years, the federal government poured a lot of money into abstinence-only education and this sole focus failed miserably.  While encouraging teens to practice abstinence has its merits, leaving out sex education entirely is denying teens essential information they need to know to stay healthy and prevent pregnancy. 

It is important to build on programs that exhibit success and that combine different methods and theories.  These programs should include a focus on health equity by eliminating racial disparities,  youth development approaches to promote reproductive health, and build on state and local capacity to use science-based approaches to promote teen health.  Sex education should be incorporated into any prevention method and not avoided for fear that providing kids with the information will cause them to be more promiscuous.  By arming them with realistic information it will educate them about how to protect themselves through a variety of means including birth control or avoiding sex entirely.  There is no one way to fully thwart teens from having sex so prevention must include a mix of strategies and education. 

Some of these ideas are catching on at the federal level as evidenced by President Obama’s 2010 budget.  His budget allows states to combine abstinence-only with proven sex education methods through the Medicaid program, and funds sexual education programs that are evidence-based with their success in lowering the number of teen pregnancies.

I must say though after watching “16 and Pregnant” that is one way to educate teens and scare them from making an unplanned life decision and commitment they can’t change.

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