Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Teen Mothers Find Life Opportunities Limited

In the wake of Sarah Palin's revelation that her teenage daughter is pregnant and plans to marry and have the baby, June Carbone (UMKC Law School) and Naomi Cahn (GWU Law School) deliver this important message about the consequences of teen pregnancy and parenthood:

The news that Sarah Palin's unwed teenage daughter is pregnant highlights a surprising reality in today's America: The ultra-conservative morality many associate with the red states is out of step with the reality of 21st century America. Today's America rewards women who avoid teen pregnancy, study longer and marry later.

The ultra-conservative morality espoused in the Republican platform, on display this week at the GOP convention, emphasizes a "traditional understanding of marriage." The platform seeks additional funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior," pointing out that abstinence "is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies."

That's the platform. The reality is that red states have higher teen pregnancy rates, more shotgun marriages and lower average ages of marriage and first births than blue states. Teenage girls in the red states are more likely than their blue-state sisters to have sex and get pregnant, marry early and get divorced, stop going to school and go to work and end up raising their children in poverty.

Read Pregnancy often puts success out of reach for teens, by June Carbone & Naomi Cahn (STL Today).

Republicans Face Abortion Issue at RNC

MarketWatch (WSJ): Palin's Daughter's Pregnancy Puts Abortion in Spotlight:

Family-values voters have a lot to digest as the Republican national convention gets under way. Sen. John McCain’s newly chosen running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said Monday that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant and plans to both keep the baby and marry the father...

The timing of the announcement also comes as Republicans gather to ratify their positions on controversial issues such as abortion, which isn’t unanimous within the party....

One of the items on Monday’s agenda is solidifying the party platform, which includes a harder line on abortion than even McCain has taken. The platform calls for opposing it in all cases and supporting a constitutional ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest or threats to the life of the mother, a position Palin supports.

Palin may appeal to social conservatives and the religious right, but her pro-life stance likely will prove too extreme to lure many of the disaffected Hillary Clinton primary voters McCain is angling for. Female voters who want to uphold Roe vs. Wade may not be as moved by the Palin family’s personal choices and may see them as the exception and not the rule when it comes to their ability to avoid a cycle of poverty that unwanted pregnancy often begins or continues.

See also New York Times: Palin Daughter's Pregnancy Interrupts Script, by Monica Davey:

In 2002, when Ms. Palin was completing her second and final term as mayor, her husband’s stepmother, Faye Palin, began campaigning to succeed her. Faye Palin, though, favored abortion rights, people who recalled the race said, and Ms. Palin sided instead with Dianne M. Keller, a City Council member who won the race and remains mayor there today.

Brian Lehrer on Gov. Palin's Opposition to Comprehensive Sex Ed

Sarah Palin has publicly stated her opposition to comprehensive sex ed, supporting instead the abstinence-only approach, which studies have proven ineffective.  On the Brian Lehrer Show (WNYC) today, Lehrer (broadcasting from the Republican Convention) raised the issue of Palin's approach to sexuality education in light of her teenage daughter's pregnancy and wondered what Palin taught her daughters at home about sex.  He asked abstinence-only supporters to call in and describe what they taught their own children at home.  You can download the podcast here.

Sarah Palin Announces Her 17-Year-Old Daughter Is Pregnant

L.A. Times: Sarah Palin announces 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, by Maeve Reston & Noam Levey:

As the Republican National Convention prepared to open, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice as his vice presidential running mate, announced that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the baby's father.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned," Sarah and Todd Palin said in a statement issued by the McCain campaign.

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

Let's hope that this is something Bristol Palin really wants, and not something she feels pushed into doing given her mother's very public and extreme opposition to abortion.

See also AFP: Republicans rocked as Palin says teen daughter pregnant

Questions Raised About HPV Vaccine Gardasil

A number of news stories this week have raised questions about Gardasil, Merck's HPV vaccine, including its cost, effectiveness, and the marketing campaign promoting the vaccine.  Brian Lehrer examined the issue on the Brian Lehrer Show (WNYC) this morning; you can download the podcast here.

New York Times: Drug Makers' Push Leads to Cancer Vaccines' Fast Rise, by Elisabeth Rosenthal:

In two years, cervical cancer has gone from obscure killer confined mostly to poor nations to the West’s disease of the moment...

One of the vaccines, Gardasil, from Merck, is made available to the poorest girls in the country, up to age 18, at a potential cost to the United States government of more than $1 billion; proposals to mandate the vaccine for girls in middle schools have been offered in 24 states, and one will take effect in Virginia this fall. Even the normally stingy British National Health Service will start giving the other vaccine — Cervarix, from GlaxoSmithKline — to all 12-year-old girls at school this September.

The lightning-fast transition from newly minted vaccine to must-have injection in the United States and Europe represents a triumph of what the manufacturers call education and their critics call marketing. The vaccines, which offer some protection against infection from sexually transmitted viruses, are far more expensive than earlier vaccines against other diseases — Gardasil’s list price is $360 for the three-dose series, and the total cost is typically $400 to nearly $1,000 with markup and office visits (and often only partially covered by health insurance).

See also:

NY Times:  Researchers Question Wide Use of HPV Vaccines, by Elizabeth Rosenthal

Newsweek: The Fast Track, by Karen Springen

Wash. Post/HealthDay: Cervical Cancer Vaccine Worth the Cost: Study, by Amanda Gardner

Wall St. Journal Health Blog: Is Merck’s Gardasil Vaccine Worth the Money?, by Jacob Goldstein

Gloucester, Mass., Principal Who Discussed "Pregnancy Pact" Resigns

NY Times: Principal Who Discussed Pregnancy Pact Resigns, by Katie Zezima:

The principal of the public high school in Gloucester, Mass., resigned Tuesday, two months after telling a reporter that a group of girls at the school made a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together.       

In June, Time Magazine reported that the principal, Joseph Sullivan, said at least half of the 18 girls who became pregnant during the school year did so as part of an agreement.

NY Times Magazine Photo Essay Examines the Young Women of Yearning for Zion Ranch, The Texas Polygamous Religious Sect

NY Times: Children of God, by Sarah Corbett:

On a humid Wednesday in late June, as she waited to be summoned by a grand jury, 16-year-old Teresa Jeffs hitched up her navy blue prairie dress and hoisted herself into the crooked arms of a live oak tree that sits in front of the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado, Tex. For a few minutes, she was not — as has been speculated about many of the young women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F.L.D.S. — a possible child bride, or a sexual-abuse victim, or a member of an out-of-touch, polygamous religious sect. She was just a kid in a tree, perched serenely above the heads of all the lawyers, reporters and sheriff’s deputies — a moon-faced girl with an auburn coxcomb of hair and a mischievous grin.

We understand so little about the view from that tree, about what the world known simply as “outside” looks like to someone like Teresa Jeffs, who was among more than 400 minors forcibly removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which belongs to the F.L.D.S., in early April.

Recent Pop-Culture Obsession with Teen Pregnancy Fails to Show the "Before or After"

Newsweek: Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style, by Sarah Kliff:

Once taboo, pregnant teenagers are popping up more frequently on TV, in movies and on magazine covers. The problem? This latest pop-culture coverage doesn't show what comes before or after.

It could have been Immaculate Conception. In the premiere episode of the new drama "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," 15-year-old Amy comes home from band practice and is shocked--the pregnancy test is positive! That two-second tryst at band camp, as she describes it to her friends, "was definitely not like what you see in the movies." They share the same confusion: how did a good girl end up in this situation? The obvious answer (Amy had unprotected sex) never quite surfaces; it's brushed off in a whirlwind of mystification. By the end of the episode, band-camp guy has taken a backseat to Amy's new love interest. As the plot pushes forward, it never once looks back at whether Amy considered contraceptives or talked to her parents about condoms. Amy is pregnant, and that is where this story starts.

OK! Mag. Discusses Whether Its Cover Story on Jamie Lynn Spears Glamorizes Teen Pregnancy

Newsweek: TEEN PREGNANCY: Baby 101, by Sarah Kliff:

When OK! Magazine announced 16-year-old Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy in December 2007, it was the best-selling issue since the magazine's American debut in 2005. "We knew it was a very big story, but it took us a little bit by surprise just how big the story became," says Rob Shuter, OK!'s executive editor. "The nightly news was talking about it."      

But the story wasn't exactly a publicist's dream. Jamie Lynn was after all, barely old enough to get her driver's license, and she was a tween icon thanks to her sitcom, "Zoey 101." Jamie Lynn, had in October of 2007 told NEWSWEEK, that she didn't have a boyfriend. Ooops! More than a few adolescent health experts cringed at the headlines. "The media doesn't show the downside to teenagers getting pregnant," says Warren Seigel, a pediatrician who founded the Adolescent Medicine Program at Coney Island Hospital.

Women's E-News Examines Media Coverage of Teen "Pregnancy Pact"

Women's E-News, Pregnancy Pact Frenzy Missed Real Teen' Story, by Shelia Gibbons:

The explosion of media interest in June in the so-called "pregnancy pact" of 17 students at Gloucester High School has left many wondering what society in general, and these teens in particular, consider appropriate social and sexual choices for them and others their age....

What the ongoing reporting eventually did reveal were the fault lines running through the ground on which Gloucester school and city officials, health care professionals and the students stand with regard to teen pregnancy and reproductive health.

What started as the national media's breathless reporting about a teen pregnancy clique led to more sober pieces explaining that school funding cuts had eliminated Gloucester High's sexuality education classes (RHRealityCheck.org); that the school forbids the distribution of condoms and other contraception without parental consent, a rule that prompted the school's doctor and nurse to resign in protest in May (Reuters); and that the nearest clinic where teens can obtain birth control is 20 miles away (Poynter.org).

--------------------

School officials were quick to deny that the school's sex ed and contraception policies were a factor here, arguing that (regardless of whether there was a pact) these teens wanted to become pregnant and therefore would have shunned contraception, even were it more readily available.  But even if most of these teens welcomed their pregnancy, this response misconstrues sexuality education as simply shoving contraception at teenagers.  Comprehensive sex ed does much more than that, including teaching teenagers about responsible sexual behavior and self-respect.  Had the school promoted and modeled a healthier attitude toward sexuality, these girls might not have been so naive about sex and pregnancy.

Bishop Apologizes for Catholic Charities' Role in Helping Teen Obtain Abortion

Do people really think it's OK when a teenager, already the mother of one child, is forced to bear another child because she is stuck in foster care with a Catholic agency?  The girl in this story got the abortion, but would not have if the Bishop had gotten his way.  (According to the story, the Bishop declared, “I forbid this to happen.”)

NY Times: Catholic Aid for Abortion Creates Stir in Virginia, by Ian Urbina:

The Roman Catholic bishop of Richmond, Va., apologized this week after workers from a Catholic organization helped a teenager in its care have an abortion....

The situation involved a 16-year-old Guatemalan, who church officials said already had one child and wanted to end her pregnancy, said Stephen S. Neill, a spokesman for the bishop.

The girl was being cared for by a program that helps illegal immigrant children in the country without guardians obtain foster care, Mr. Neill said. She received the abortion in January after a staff member of Commonwealth Catholic Charities signed a consent form and after a volunteer drove her to the facility, he said.

H/T: Amy Leipziger

How Not to Get Teens to Take Pregnancy Seriously

ABC Family seems to have come up with a very lame response to recent concerns about teenage pregnancy.  And, as in every American movie of late to confront unintended pregnancy, abortion continues to be the big shameful "a-word" that must not be uttered....  (from the review: "[The pregnant teen's] friends tell her she has options, but abortion is apparently not one of them; that choice is dismissed right away in horrified tones.") (more on that topic here).

NY Times: A Teenage Pregnancy, Packaged as a Prime-Time Cautionary Tale, by Alessandra Stanley:

No one seems to know for sure whether all those high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., had a secret pregnancy pact. But “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” must surely be the collective effort of an anti-pregnancy cabal....

At a time when hit movies like “Juno” and “Knocked Up” celebrate the lighter side of unprotected sex and the celebrity press has recently been filled with belly shots of Jamie Lynn Spears, it’s not surprising that purveyors of pop culture feel compelled to send a corrective message to young viewers. NBC is doing its part with a reality show, “Baby Borrowers,” that assigns teenage couples babies to raise by themselves full time to discover what parenthood is really like. ABC Family chose a more traditional drama format and then promptly forgot who its audience is.

Yemen: Young Girls Defy Child Marriage

NY Times: Tiny Voices Defy Child Marriage in Yemen, by Robert F. Worth:

One morning last month, Arwa Abdu Muhammad Ali walked out of her husband’s house here and ran to a local hospital, where she complained that he had been beating and sexually abusing her for eight months.

That alone would be surprising in Yemen, a deeply conservative Arab society where family disputes tend to be solved privately. What made it even more unusual was that Arwa was 9 years old.

Within days, Arwa — a tiny, delicate-featured girl — had become a celebrity in Yemen, where child marriage is common but has rarely been exposed in public. She was the second child bride to come forward in less than a month; in April, a 10-year-old named Nujood Ali had gone by herself to a courthouse to demand a divorce, generating a landmark legal case.

Romania: 11-Year-Old Incest Victim Permitted Abortion

BBC News: Romanian girl permitted abortion:

An 11-year-old Romanian girl who is 21 weeks pregnant after being raped by an uncle will be able to have an abortion, even though it is forbidden by law.                   

A government committee said the procedure should go ahead due to the exceptional circumstances of her case.                   

Romanian Government to Decide on Abortion for 11-Year-Old Incest Victim

China Daily: Romanian gov't to decide on 11-year-old girl abortion:

BUCHAREST, Romania  -- Romania's health minister said Wednesday a government committee will decide this week whether an 11-year-old who was raped by her uncle can go to Britain for an abortion or must continue the pregnancy.

The case, which surfaced earlier this month, has bitterly divided the medical community, child rights groups and the public.

The girl is 20 weeks pregnant, which is over the legal limit for abortions in Romania.

Gloucester Mayor Denies Teen "Pregnancy Pact"

Reuters: Mayor in Massachusetts city denies pregnancy "pact", by Jason Szep:

The mayor of a Massachusetts city that drew attention for a spike in teenage pregnancies denied on Monday a media report that a group of girls entered a pact to become pregnant.

Experts Concerned By Recent Spate of Teen Pregnancies

Baltimore Sun: Babies As Something Fun, by Susan Reimer:

The head of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is outraged that for many teens,'having a baby is ... about the same as getting a tattoo'

June 22, 2008

Teen pregnancy news has gone from the mundane to the sensational.

Recent data show that the declines in teen sex and improvements in contraceptive use have leveled off and that the teen birth rate is on the rise for the first time in 15 years.

Unfortunately, that news generated not much more than yawns.

See also this statement by the National Campaign on Jamie Lynn Spears' becoming a teenage mother. 

MTV Newsroom also has a recent article on teen pregnancies: Jamie Lynn Spears Birth, Teen Pregnancy Increase Concern Experts: ‘Babies Need And Deserve Adult Parents’

Gloucester, MA: "Pregnancy Pact" Explains Startling Increase in Pregnant Teens

TIME: Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High, by Kathleen Kingsbury:

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

Gloucester stymied by rise in teen pregnancy

Boston Globe: Gloucester stymied by rise in teen pregnancy, by Tania deLuzuriaga:

Kim Daly sensed something was amiss in this seaside community during the first month of school last fall after several girls came to the school health clinic she runs at Gloucester High School asking for pregnancy tests.

Each time, Daly stood in her lab with her eyes closed, little white wand in hand waiting for the results to appear. When they were negative, she breathed a sigh of relief. When they were positive, she braced herself for the unpredictable emotional response that comes with telling a teenager she's going to be a mother. Some girls broke down in tears. Others broke into smiles. One exclaimed, "Sweet!"

By October, Daly had delivered positive results to as many girls as she typically does in an average year. By May, she knew of 17 girls who were pregnant, more than four times the number the 1,162-student school had the year before.

The spike has shocked and baffled education and health officials here and reignited a fierce debate about contraception in schools. But most alarming to education and health officials is the fact that a significant portion of the pregnancies are occurring in girls 16 and younger and that some seem to be intentional.

Decline in Sexual Activity Among Teens Levels Off

Wash. Post: Decline in Teen Sex Levels Off, Survey Shows, by Rob Stein:

The nation's campaign to get more teenagers to delay sex and to use condoms is faltering, threatening to undermine the highly successful effort to reduce teen pregnancy and protect young people from sexually transmitted diseases, federal officials reported yesterday.

New data from a large government survey show that by every measure, a decade-long decline in sexual activity among high school students leveled off between 2001 and 2007, and that the rise in condom use by teens flattened out in 2003.

Moreover, the survey found disturbing hints that teen sexual activity may have begun creeping up and that condom use among high school students might be edging downward, though those trend lines have not yet reached a point where statisticians can be sure, officials said.

TX Court of Appeals Rules Against State in Polygamy Case

NY Times: Appeals Court Rules Against Texas in Polygamy Case, by Anahad O'Connor and Kirk Johnson:

A Texas state court of appeals ruled Thursday afternoon that the state of Texas had no right to seize more than 400 children from a polygamist ranch in Eldorado, in the western part of the state, because there was not sufficient proof that they were in immediate danger.

The ruling asserted that the state’s child protection agency acted hastily in removing the children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in April and did not make a reasonable effort “to ascertain if some measure short of removal and/or separation from parents would have eliminated the risk” of abuse toward the children of 48 mothers who filed the suit. The district court was ordered to remove its restraining order giving the state custody of those children, but it was not immediately clear how the hundreds of other children, now in foster care, would be affected....

The agency raided the ranch and the sect’s temple on April 3 after someone had called an abuse hot line and said that she was a 16-year-old child bride being abused by her older husband in the church’s compound. The caller has still not been found.

Report: Teens Don't Engage in Oral Sex to "Preserve Virginity"

Wash. Post: A Debunking on Teenagers and 'Technical Virginity': Researchers Find That Oral Sex Isn't Commonplace Among Young People Who Avoid Intercourse, by Rob Stein:

Contrary to widespread belief, teenagers do not appear to commonly engage in oral sex as a way to preserve their virginity, according to the first study to examine the question nationally.

The analysis of a federal survey of more than 2,200 males and females aged 15 to 19, released yesterday, found that more than half reported having had oral sex. But those who described themselves as virgins were far less likely to say they had tried it than those who had had intercourse.

"There's a popular perception that teens are engaging in serial oral sex as a strategy to avoid vaginal intercourse," said Rachel Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, a private, nonprofit research organization based in New York, who helped do the study. "Our research suggests that's a misperception."

Instead, the study found that teens tend to become sexually active in many ways at about the same time. For example, although only one in four teenage virgins had engaged in oral sex, within six months after their first intercourse more than four out of five adolescents reported having oral sex.

The full report from the Guttmacher Institute is available here.

Fathers Vow To Be Their Daughters' "Authority and Protection" at "Purity Ball" in Colorado Springs

NY Times: Dancing the Night Away, With a Higher Purpose, by Neela Banerjee:

COLORADO SPRINGS — In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.

The girls, ages early grade school to college, had come with their fathers, stepfathers and future fathers-in-law last Friday night to the ninth annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball. The first two hours of the gala passed like any somewhat awkward night out with parents, the men doing nearly all the talking and the girls struggling to cut their chicken.

But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.”...

Recent studies have suggested that close relationships between fathers and daughters can reduce the risk of early sexual activity among girls and teenage pregnancy. But studies have also shown that most teenagers who say they will remain abstinent, like those at the ball, end up having sex before marriage, and they are far less likely to use condoms than their peers.

It's only understandable that the girls need to be protected by their fathers.  Otherwise, who will save them from all those boys busy sowing their wild oats (and certainly not attending any "purity ball" with Mom)?

Students Experience Simulated Pregnancy and Parenting

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Playing at pregnancy: Students get parenting lesson, by Aileen Dodd:

Other students whispered and stared as Dacula High School senior Lindsay Holbrook waddled down the hall with a round belly peeking through a cotton maternity shirt.

Pregnant before graduation? What a shame.

"A lot of people in the hallway thought it was real," Holbrook said. "They were like, 'Are you pregnant?' And I was like 'No, it's for a class project.' "

The "Responsible Parenting" class aims to prevent teenage pregnancy by giving students a "real-life" parenting experience.

Students – girls and guys – don a 30-pound pregnancy "empathy belly" containing metal balls floating in water to simulate the movement of a baby in amniotic fluid. They also walk around with a pouch of sand pressing down on their bladders like a real growing fetus would....

After lessons on labor, delivery and child care, students face the ultimate challenge – they take a newborn baby home overnight or for a weekend stay.

Special Schools for Pregnant Teens

Christian Science Monitor: Special schools for pregnant girls?, by Ben Arnoldy (4/30):                        

Boise, Idaho - Soon after getting pregnant, high school sophomore Alicia Mattocks worried that bullies might purposely slam her into a locker and that a teacher's rules wouldn't allow frequent bathroom runs.       

But it was the thought of not having to go to school quite so early, when she felt her worst, that pushed her to transfer to the Marian Pritchett School, an alternative public school in Boise for pregnant and parenting students. That decision, she says, saved her from dropping out.

A senior now, she plasters her binders with photos of her son, Ryder. This June, she'll mark another milestone: On her head will be a tasseled square cap.       

Pritchett school, however, faces a funding shortfall because state grants that fund it have dried up. Separate schools for pregnant teens have dwindled in recent years because of concern for educational equality, budget constraints, and changing social mores.

See also this post regarding the closing last year of special schools for pregnant teenagers in New York.  One reader asked whether such schools pose a Title IX problem.  Here's the response I posted (regarding the New York schools):

That's a good question. As the article points out, "Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 stated that schools were allowed to create separate educational programs for pregnant students but that they must be of comparable quality to standard high schools."

While these schools were formed in the '60s when pregnant girls were being forced out of ordinary schools, obviously Title IX made that practice illegal, although the schools could still provide alternative education for pregnant girls who chose it. It seems that given the inferior education the schools were providing, however, they were not complying with the spirit of Title IX.

Pregnant girls have continued to face discrimination in New York and elsewhere, including exclusion from programs like the National Honor Society, and it is important for pregnant students and their families to understand that this is illegal.

UPDATE/CORRECTION (5/13):  Apologies for a prior link to an NYCLU publication on pregnant and parenting teens that no longer worked.  The following publications from the NYCLU Reproductive Rights Project are available online:

• Booklet: The Rights Of Pregnant And Parenting Teens (2006)
• Palm Card: Your Rights As A Pregnant Or Parenting Teen (2007) (also available in Spanish)

Thanks to Southern Students for Choice - Emory for providing the links to these publications.

Shelby Knox Blogs About House Hearing on Abstinence-Only

Via the ACLU's Take Issue, Take Charge blog: Shelby Knox blogs the House Hearings Assessing Abstinence-Only Programs (4/24):

Shelby Knox grew up as a conservative Southern Baptist in Texas turned progressive activist and documentary film subject. She recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Political Science. Throughout her college career, Shelby traveled across the nation to speak to young people about the importance of comprehensive sex education and the power of youth activism, using the film that carries her name, The Education of Shelby Knox, as a vehicle for discussion. She currently lives in New York City and is a full time speaker and organizer working with progressive organizations to promote sex education, women’s rights, and youth empowerment.

Yesterday the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, chaired by the Honorable Henry Waxman, held the first ever oversight hearing on the effectiveness of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs – programs that have been around for 25 years and have received over a billion dollars in federal funding in the past 10 years alone. (For the Committee's website, which includes Waxman's opening statement and the testimony of all of the expert witnesses, click here.)

Chilean Contraception Case Prompts Plans for "Massive Apostasy"

Womens eNews: Chile Birth-Control Case Spurs 'Apostasy' Planning, by Matt Malinowsky:                                 

Chilean judges, siding with the Vatican, have dealt a major blow to the Bachelet government by ending free emergency contraception in public clinics. A women's rights group is organizing a mass renunciation of Catholicism to express their outrage.

SANTIAGO, Chile (WOMENSENEWS)--Hundreds of Chileans are planning to renounce their membership in the Roman Catholic Church on April 29 as an outcry against a major blow to the government's push for expanded access to contraception.

On April 18 Chile's Constitutional Court outlawed distribution of emergency contraception in public health clinics to women 14 and older, a policy implemented in September 2006 by the government of President Michelle Bachelet to lower teen pregnancy rates in a country where 15 percent of births are to women 18 or younger. Emergency contraception remains available in the nation's private pharmacies.

Iowa Governor Signs HPV Vaccine Law

DesMoines Register: Governor signs law requiring some health plans to cover HPV shot, by Tony Leys (4/19):

Gov. Chet Culver signed a bill Friday that will require some health insurers to cover a cervical-cancer vaccine, but Culver said he doubts the state will ever require girls to get the shots.

Proponents say the vaccinations against human papilloma virus could save thousands of lives nationally because they stave off common infections that cause most cases of cervical cancer. But the idea of adding them to the list of required childhood shots has been controversial because the viruses are transmitted sexually.

National medical experts recommend that all girls receive HPV shots at age 11 or 12, before they become sexually active. Critics say the vaccinations could encourage promiscuity, which supporters deny.

 

 

Researching the Relationship Between Sex Ed and Sexual Activity Among Teens

The Journal of Adolescent Health: Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy, by Pamela Kohler et al.:

In April, the Journal of Adolescent Health published a study examining the effect of formal sex education programs on the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among teens. The researchers noted that abstinence-only programs have no significant effect on "delaying the initiation of sexual activity or in reducing the risk for teen pregnancy" and STIs. They added that when compared with no sex education or abstinence-only education, comprehensive sex education programs were associated with a significantly reduced risk of pregnancy.

See also: BBC News: Has US abstinence policy failed?, by                         By Jane O'Brien.

House Committee Debates Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education

How much evidence does Congress need to have about the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education before it stops debating these programs and starts defunding them?

L.A. Times: Federal funding of abstinence-only sex education programs debated, by Sarah Wire:

WASHINGTON -- Continued federal funding of abstinence-only sex education in public schools was debated before a House committee Wednesday amid questions about whether the government should sponsor a program that many experts say doesn't work.

Most of the 11 witnesses who appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform advocated instead for comprehensive programs that include information about how teenagers can protect themselves from pregnancy or disease if they choose to engage in sexual activity.

Teen Pregnancy Rate versus Teen Birth Rate

Our Bodies Our Blog: What's the Truth About Teen Pregnancy?

You may have seen recent headlines such as "US teen pregnancy rate near historic low" and been somewhat confused (I certainly was). After all, didn't the CDC just announce that teen pregnancy rates were going up? A Dec 7, 2007 CDC press release entitled "Teen Birth Rate Rises for First Time in 14 Years" stated that "The teen birth rate in the United States rose in 2006 for the first time since 1991, and unmarried childbearing also rose significantly, according to preliminary birth statistics."

The two reports focus on slightly different things - teen pregnancies vs. teen births. The new report notes that the teen pregnancy rate was 72.2 per 1,000 ages 15-19 in 2004. The 2006 report indicates that the teen birth rate has increased to 41.9 births per 1,000, but doesn't provide an overall teen pregnancy rate. These are difficult to compare easily, as not all pregnancies result in births. We know, then, that births to teenagers increased in 2006, but not how the actual pregnancy rate changed. The teen pregnancy report shows a historic trend of both birth and abortion rates declining alongside pregnancy rates.

 

ME Middle School Offers Prescription Contraceptives But Has Few Takers

Associated Press: Middle school has 1 taker months after contraceptives furor, by David Sharp:

PORTLAND, Maine -- For all the firestorm surrounding the decision to make prescription contraceptives available at King Middle School, only one girl has used the service in the six months since the program began, officials say.

Last fall, administrators said they anticipated that only a handful of older middle schoolers would use the service, even though it was open to all students enrolled in the clinic, including those as young as 11.

As of Thursday, the only student to obtain a prescription for contraceptives was a 14-year-old girl, the city reported in response to a Freedom of Access request from The Associated Press.

"If it helps one student who otherwise might be in a position of being at risk, then it's worth it," said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland's student health centers.

Miss. House Panel To Study Bill Restricting Abortions for Minors

Daily Women's Health Policy Report: Miss. House Speaker To Appoint Panel To Study Bill Regulating Abortions for Minors:

Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy (D) on Wednesday announced that he will appoint a "diverse group" of House members to study a Senate-approved bill (HB 520) that would restrict abortions for minors, which is currently held up in a House committee, the AP/Biloxi Sun Herald reports. McCoy said the bill, as well as other antiabortion-related legislation, will be considered in 2009. According to the AP/Sun Herald, McCoy took the step as a way to head off a potentially divisive battle with conservatives that threatened his leadership (Wagster Pettus, AP/Biloxi Sun Herald, 4/16).

The House had recently voted 79-41 to pass HB 520, but the measure was held up by Rep. Willie Bailey (D), who as the chair of the committee of jurisdiction has the authority to table a motion to reconsider under Mississippi House rules. Nine Mississippi House members last week filed a petition to temporarily change the rule (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/15).

CDC Study Shows Dramatic Decline in US Teen Pregnancy Rate

AFP: US teen pregnancy rate near historic low: study:

CHICAGO (AFP) — The