Ruth Institute Blog

by Charlie Butts

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America (CWA) says the truth is that teen birth rates have been dropping for several years now, and the stats from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are good news.

“[Teen birth rates] dropped nine percent. This is about the third year in a row when these have declined,” she reports. “It’s also a record low for younger and older teenagers and for every single race, and that is particularly significant because the black rate has been very high in comparison to other races, and also with Hispanic groups.” Read more…

Wowsers. Some people have totally lost their minds, particularly regarding the tidbit in the very last paragraph.

by Carolyn Moynihan

British secondary schools are required by law to teach the biological facts of human reproduction in science lessons, but students themselves often say the instruction given is too biological. The facts also speak for themselves: Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. Read more…

Teen girls keep having children, writes high school teacher Gerry Garibaldi, and we keep encouraging them

Teen pregnancy is an “intractable problem,” says Gerry Garibaldi, that urban teachers “cannot spend or even teach [their] way out of.” Photo: Corbis

IN MY SHORT time as a teacher in Connecticut, I have muddled through President Bush’s No Child Left Behind act, which tied federal funding of schools to various reforms, and through President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, which does much the same thing, though with different benchmarks. Thanks to the Feds, urban schools like mine are swimming in money. Our facility is state-of-the-art, thanks to a recent $40 million face-lift, with gleaming new hallways and bathrooms and a fully computerized library. Read more…

Who knows?

by  Becky Yeh

A new report shows that teen pregnancies in California have hit a record low — and the cause is up for debate.

A report released by the California Department of Public Health indicates that the birth rate for teenagers in the state decreased to approximately 32 births for every 1,000 girls from ages 15 to 19. Los Angeles County’s director of public health states the reduction proves teenagers are waiting longer to have sex for the first time. Read more…

Seems like a logical conclusion they should have come to in advance.

by Carolyn Moynihan

A decade ago public health experts and frontline health professionals convinced the UK government that easy (free, over the counter) access to the morning after pill would bring down the country’s record rates of teenage pregnancy. It hasn’t, but it has helped to increase sexually transmitted infections among teens. Read more…

I like it. Way to go.

by Melinda Tankard Reist

When Melinda Tankard Reist’s latest book, Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls, was published last year, a reviewer described it as a “collective shout against the pornification of culture”. “I liked the phrase so much I decided to give it to a new grassroots campaign I’d been thinking about,” says the Australian advocate for women and girls. Here she talks to MercatorNet about the impact that campaign is having. Read more…

The thought of kids having kids is really disturbing to me. I had my first child when I was 25, and I can say, it’s serious business. I can’t imagine doing it while trying to go to high school or even college. And who is really going to be raising these children anyhow? My guess is, the grandmothers. Let’s do a survey of how mothers of pregnant teens feel about teen pregnancy.

The picture a 13-year-old boy sitting next to his baby, which accompanied an article on this topic a while back, still burns in my memory. It was such a heart-wrenching sight. The thirteen-year-old  looked so tiny. Plus his face spoke volumes of “What have I gotten myself into?” This dad is still asking to have his pb and j cut into triangles and for rides to the library. I wouldn’t let a 13-year-old boy babysit my toddlers. Babies deserve more. Read more…

Sex ed programs aren’t working. The solution: keep having them!

By Professor Brenda Almond

After 13 years in power, a sense of chronic disappointment hangs over the Labour administration.

Yesterday, another of the Government’s shameful failures was exposed: the bankruptcy of its policy to tackle Britain’s awful record as western Europe’s teenage pregnancy capital. Read more…

Way to break it down. This is what they wanted to do. This is what they did. Thanks a lot. I miss the 50′s (had I lived during them).

by Joanna Bogle

As possibly one of its last acts as government, British Labour bids to make sex education compulsory.

Sex education. The very words strike a note of gloom. Long, long ago, back in the 1950s when schoolgirl pregnancies were a rarity, and anyone who gave children contraceptives and urged them to enjoy “safe sex” would have been arrested, things looked different. Read more…

My money is on the horrible movies and tv shows geered toward teens. Just a preview for an American Pie movie was enough to make me want to retch.

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow -

Teen pregnancies were up three percent in 2006, which is the latest reporting period available. Proponents of comprehensive sex education are blaming abstinence programs for the increase. Read more…