September 11, 2007

Reducing Teen Pregnancy Rates

Good progress has been made in reducing teen pregnancy rates in the South Carolina and the rest of the United States in the past fifteen years, but much more needs to be done. The US still has the highest teen pregnancy rates of all the developed counties, and of the one million teens that become pregnant each year, only one-fourth will be married.
In my work as a child and adolescent therapist for the SC Department of Mental Health, I attempted to get the boys and girls that I worked with to understand the effects becoming a teen parent would have on the rest of their lives. Twenty-five percent of all teen moms will eventually end up on welfare and will face systemic poverty, because getting pregnant during your teens years usually means not completing your high school education. Without a high school diploma, or GED, it is difficult to obtain a good paying job that will allow you to support yourself and your family. The single most important indicator of future earnings is the number of years of education.The basic rules for having a successful life are as follows:
• Get all the education you possibly can• Do not become a parent until you are married• Do not get married until you have a good education
The keys to further reductions in the teen birth rate are an expanded comprehensive sex education program in our middle and high schools and increased access to family planning information and methods. Although comprehensive sex education is part of the mandated health education program in South Carolina schools, many school districts have not implemented the program because of a shortage of funding or teaching resources.
Because of the emphasis in many teen pregnancy preventions programs of educating females on the issue and solutions, men’s programs on the same subject do not carry the same emphasis on personal responsibility for out-of-wedlock pregnancies as the girl’s programs do.
If we are to continue to reduce teen pregnancies and out of wedlock births, we must find new ways to communicate to teenage boys and men their responsibility in making every child a wanted child. The second part of this aspect is to begin to hold the fathers of the out of wedlock births financially responsible and to involve them in the child’s life. We cannot continue to allow teenage boys and men to simply walk away from their financial and emotional responsibilities if our goal is to continue reducing teen pregnancies. This goal will be the most difficult to achieve because of the long historical and cultural traditions that link the concept of manhood to simply producing numbers of children without any consideration for the quality of life and future opportunities for the children.
Successful model sex and health education programs in countries like The Netherlands should be adopted in the United States if we are truly dedicated to reducing the teen pregnancy rate by another twenty-five or thirty percent. Unfortunately, our political, educational and social environments will not allow the adoption of these successful programs anytime in the near future.
Duane Bates worked as a therapist for the SC Department of Mental Health. He is retired, but currently volunteers for the United Way HELPline and as Controller for the Taylors Free Medical Clinic. He can be reached at bateduane@yahoo.com.