News

Jan 15, 2009

Critics of abstinence education are using the latest Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study on teen birth rates to support their cause. Supporters, however, say those arguing against abstinence education are ignoring many other factors that play into the high birth rates.

The latest CDC report on the teen birth rate in the U.S. was compiled using data from 2006. The study found that Mississippi leads the nation in teen births with a rate of 68 births per 1,000 teens, ages 15 to 19 years. The state with the lowest rate was New Hampshire, with a rate of 19 per 1,000 for the same age group. Overall, the national pregnancy rate for teens saw an increase from the previous year. A recent Associated Press article on the subject suggests that the increase proves that abstinence programs are failing.

But Reg Finger, an independent medical researcher and a member of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, disagrees. "That is an unwarranted conclusion," he says in reference to the AP report. "There are many, many things that go into a birth rate -- everything from the sexual activity and disease in the teenagers to miscarriage rates, to just the demographics of the people who are at risk."

Despite the increase in the birth rate seen in 2006, Finger says the overall trend in the past decade has been a decline.

"Even the sexual activity among teenagers is not just a function of the education that's rendered in the schools, but it's a function of many, many things that go into [a] teenager's decision making," he adds. "What happens at home, what happens in their peer community, what happens in terms of the media and the exposures that teenagers get all across society -- and then most importantly, the mentoring relationships that they have that form their opinions and their behaviors."

Dr. Tabitha Staier, an assistant extension professor and specialist in family education and policy for Mississippi State University, says when it comes to placing blame, the CDC report has raised more questions than answers.

"The questions about, 'Are teens using contraceptives in Mississippi at the rate that they are using them [overall] in the United States?' [and] 'Are our teens more sexually active?' There are so many different questions that I think need to be answered and, quite honestly, I don't know how much data we have to answer some of those questions," she notes. "Some of it we just don't have both as a nation and as a state."

Staier also believes demographics play into the high teen birth rate in Mississippi. "We do tend to have a larger black population, and the black population overall in the United States tends to have the highest rate of teen births," she points out. "And so some of that contributes to our high number in Mississippi. But in addition, issues of poverty and education [play a role in the birth rate]."

The CDC study, according to Staier, also highlights the need for parents to address issues of relationships and sex with their children. Judie Brown, president and cofounder of the American Life League, agrees with Staier and adds that teens are increasingly being exposed to more and more invitations to have sexual relations.

"And the underlying problem, as I see it, is the lack of parental supervision. More and more parents, both parents, are in the work force -- if indeed the adolescent is fortunate enough to come from a family where both parents are still there. And so this leaves many, many young people, millions of them, with the television as the babysitter," she concludes. "And I think all of these things contribute to what we are seeing now in terms of the rates of adolescent pregnancy and adolescent abortion rates -- not to mention the escalating rates of adolescent sexually transmitted disease."

Brown also says those who use the CDC study to debunk abstinence training have a vested interest. Planned Parenthood, she argues, basically sets the agenda for the government in the area of sex education. And anything that comes along that might hamper Planned Parenthood's ability to gain more and more financial support and clients, she says, is going to be something that it will degrade.

According to AP, when actual numbers are considered instead of percentages, California, Texas, and Florida account for the largest increases in teen births.