A recent report shows that fewer babies were born to teenagers in 2010 than at any point since the United States started tracking that information in the early 20th century. The national numbers are good news and represent a year over year decline of nearly 10%. The hard numbers are that out of 1000 women ages 15 to 19, 35 of them delivered babies in 2010. Comparing this number to previous years shows some bumps in the road but an overall downward trend since 1991. In 2007 that number was 42 per 1000, in 1991 the number was 62 per 1000, and the highest number was in 1961 at about 89 per 1000. Unfortunately, Mississippi has the highest rate in America at 55 births per 1000 teenage girls.
The reason for our high birth rate among teens is complicated and anybody that tells you they know the answer is either confused or lying. Considering all of the things we know about the people in our state, I have picked the following three statistics to explore in conjunction with our teen birth rate. We are the most religious people in the country. We have the lowest income in the country. Our students score last in mathematics and science scores which leads to us having the highest drop-out rate.
How does religion affect our teen birth rate? Nearly every religion practiced in the state says that sex outside of marriage is a sin. According to Gallup, 85% of Mississippians claim that religion is an important part of our daily lives. I have no reason to doubt this. Nearly every person I know claims to be a religious person and many attend church services every time the doors are open. Compared to the rest of the nation where only 65% claim religion is important in their daily lives, we are quite a devout group of people.
For me, this suggests that our children and teens know the value of being abstinent. We preach this to them on a fairly regular basis from the time they are old enough to understand where babies come from. So, our religions should be forcing our teen birth rates lower than the rest of the nation but this is not the case. There is a big contradiction between being the most religious people in the country and also having the highest teen pregnancy rate. I also want to point out that this is not just a teen issue; nearly 50% of all babies born in Mississippi are to unwed mothers. Clearly religious teachings alone cannot stop people from having sex.
How does low income affect our teen birth rate? This question seems easy to answer from a simple overview of data but with all things it is difficult to know for certain. Nationwide, the stats show that lower income teenagers have higher birth rates than their higher income peers. The generally accepted reason for this is that the wealthier teens can afford birth control and while this is true, it is only part of the story.
For some reason, wealthier families talk to their children about sex more than poor families. Indeed, surveys show that children from wealthier families know more about potential health risks of sexual activities than do children of poorer families. This extends to education in general. Children from wealthier families perform better in school and are much less likely to drop-out. This is often attributed to the parents being active in the child’s education.
It is quite a horrible circle. Poor teens are more likely to get pregnant because they have less access to birth control and because their parents have not had the talk with them. Then these teen mothers are often doomed to live on the lower end of society financially and so their children are raised in a poor household. When these children are teens they face the same conditions their mother did fifteen years earlier. They have parents that are poor, tend to be less educated, and are less likely to talk to them about sex. In this way teen pregnancy can be thought of as a plague that is passed from one generation to the next.
So here we have two conflicting sides of the same issue. On the one hand we have the most religiously moral people in the country but also the least educated and most poor people in the country. Why is it that the moral argument of abstinence does not have a stronger effect on our teens? I am not able to answer that question and will not venture guesses; however, the hormonal and social pressures of being a teenager are very strong. It is my belief that the sexual urges of a teenager are strong enough to override any amount of abstinence education we adults give them.
It is into this reality that Tupelo’s School Board voted Tuesday to continue only teaching abstinence only education to our teens. I would like to know why. I understand that parents do not want their children being told to go out and have sex; unfortunately, 60% of Mississippi’s teens already are sexually active. This is true in spite of our abstinence only stance and high religiosity.
It seems to me that we the people of Mississippi should come together and admit that things are not working as they are now and make a change. Sex education in school is in essence a biology and anatomy science class. Can someone explain to me why this type of education is opposed? Would it not be better for our children to be educated?
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