Abstinence-only is big in Texas.The Lone Star state gets almost twice as much in federal funding for abstinence-only education as any other state, about $17 million a year. Is this somehow because President Bush lives there and he supports abstinence-only education for teens? Not sure.
At any rate, the abstinence-only plan is apparently not working. Texas has the nation's highest birth rate among teens who already have a baby, at 24%. The national average for repeat births to teens is 20%, and in many of New England's blue states, it's less than 15%.
Part of the discrepancy is due to higher abortion rates in northern states. Nonetheless, even supporters of abstinence-only programs must conclude that these plans are not preventing teens from having sex. Worse, they are failing to educate teens about birth control.
Sources:
Marian Starkey, December 2007. "Texas has highest repeat birth rate." The Reporter, the magazine of Population Connection. www.populationconnection.org
J. Swedish. "Texas ranks number one in the nation for abstinence-only funding and births to teen mothers. What's wrong with this picture?" Nation Women's Law Center.
http://nwlc.blogs.com/womenstake/2007/11/texas-ranks-num.html
See also Dallas Morning News article by Robert T. Garrett
Keywords: abstinence only, teen birth, repeat teen birth, Texas, birth control, protected sex
No comments:
Post a Comment