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McCook Gazette
Letter to the Editor

May is Teen Pregnancy Month

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Dear Editor,

In 2010, teenage pregnancy rates reached record lows. However, teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates in the U.S. for teens between the ages of 15 and 19 (approximately 400,000 teens give birth every year in the United States.) are still the highest in the industrialized world. Teen pregnancy and parenting are significant contributors to the drop-out rates among teen girls. Thirty percent of teenage girls who drop out of high school cite pregnancy or parenthood as a primary reason. Only around half of teen moms receive their high school diploma compared to nearly 90 percent of women who did not give birth during their teenage years.

Girls in foster care are much more likely to become teen mothers than their peers. By age 19, pregnancy rates for girls in foster care are 2.5 times greater than that of their peers who are not in the system, meaning that nearly half of girls in foster care have become pregnant at least once by their 19th birthday.

Teen childbearing is a public health concern because teen mothers are more likely to experience negative social outcomes, including school dropout. In addition, infants of teen mothers are more likely to be low birth weight and have lower academic achievement, and daughters of teen mothers are more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

Rates of contraceptive use among sexually active teens might be improved by providing appropriate access to contraception, encouraging consistent use of more effective contraceptives, promoting condom use for protection against sexually transmitted infections including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and increasing teens' motivation to use contraception consistently.

Let's get together as health care providers, parents, and educators to encourage delaying the onset of sexual activity and abstinence, providing factual information about the conditions under which pregnancy can occur, increasing teens' motivation to avoid pregnancy, and strengthen their negotiation skills for pregnancy prevention.

Becky Brooks

Family Planning Nurse

111 West C Street

McCook, Nebraska

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  • Historically, women began their married lives and started having children before age 19. Once we reach sexual maturity, that's our nature.

    The sex drive given us by God has not diminished through the years of history. Even though we encourage people to "wait" until they are 25 or 30, we are fighting the true nature of things.

    What we should do is encourage younger marriages, instead of encouraging abortions, adoptions, and delayed marriage. We should promote responsibility in our children.

    I have friends who got married at a young age (I mean 16 to 18) due to the durress of an unplanned pregnancy. They have had accomplished careers and raised some fine children.

    The crazy sexuality portrayed in most movies and TV shows these days has had a profound effect on young people, too. Casual sex on the screen rarely has the emotional trauma that it does in real life. While it is treated as merely a form recreation in the media, the reality is that casual sex is demeaning of the wonderful gift of sexual intimacy that God gave us. It's supposed to be special, not frivolous.

    -- Posted by JohnGalt1968 on Thu, May 3, 2012, at 3:39 PM
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