Guttmacher Institute

WASHINGTON -- Positive peer pressure from close friends is helping teens avoid risky sexual behavior, according to reports issued today on Capitol Hill.Rates of pregnancy, birth and abortion continue to drop among teens, according to a 50-state report released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of New York.The institute reported these national trends for 1996 among women ages 15 to 19:* Pregnancy rates fell 4 percent from 1995, to 97 per 1,000 women.* Birth rates also fell 4 percent, to 54 per 1,000.

In response to the March 15 column, "Contraceptive isn't bad, no matter what GOP candidates tell," the writer probably meant "mandate," not "contraceptive. " GOP candidates don't like federal mandates that infringe on the religious freedom for which the United States was founded. I am proud to live in a country where people are free to worship as they choose, dress and display symbols according to religious beliefs, and not forced to defy religious beliefs such as not working on the Sabbath.

With the Republican Party poised to reaffirm its position that abortion should be banned, an abortion-rights institute is to release a study today revealing that thousands of women who have had the procedure are affiliated with religions that crusade against abortion.The study of nearly 10,000 women nationwide who had abortions in 1994 and early 1995 found that despite the Roman Catholic Church's strong opposition to abortion, 31.3 percent of the abortion patients surveyed were Catholic. And 18.1 percent of the 10,000 patients identified themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians.

A society is at its worst when it leaves its most vulnerable citizens exposed so that its most powerful can hide from ugly realities. In the case of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' ruling to reject the Food and Drug Administration's expert opinion regarding access to emergency contraception for adolescent girls, the ugly reality is that teenage girls engage in unprotected sexual intercourse. Unprotected from pregnancy due to lack of effective contraception, unprotected from sexually transmitted illnesses including HIV, unprotected from the aggressive sexual content of popular media and advertising, unprotected by social and family networks that ought to be looking out for them.

Bay bridge driver impaired, imprudent In the article "No criminal charges in fatal Bay Bridge accident" (Dec. 19), Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Frank M. Kratovil Jr. is quoted as saying that Candy Lynn Baldwin's actions in causing the accident in August do not fall within the "gross negligence" requirement for manslaughter. Ms. Baldwin was sleep-deprived and had been drinking prior to the accident that took John Robert Short's life. Obviously her judgment and driving skills were impaired.

While contraceptives might seem readily available almost anywhere today, many health insurance plans actually do not include coverage of birth control, or neglect to give information about the coverage they provide.A new study says managed care organizations frequently offer no such coverage out of a misplaced concern about costs."It's undeniable that for an insurer to pay for pregnancy is many, many, many times more expensive than paying for contraception," said Rachel Gold, a researcher with the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a family planning research and advocacy organization that sponsored the study.

A new national study on male sexual behavior, the most thorough examination of American men's sexual practices published since the Kinsey report more than four decades ago, shows that about 2 percent of the men surveyed had engaged in homosexual sex and 1 percent considered themselves exclusively homosexual.The figures on homosexuality in the study released yesterday by the Alan Guttmacher Institute are significantly lower than the 10 percent figure that has been part of the country's conventional ,, wisdom since it was published in the Kinsey report.

Early editions of The Sun on Tuesday incorrectly referred to the Alan Guttmacher Institute in second reference as Mr. Guttmacher. In fact, Dr. Guttmacher, a Baltimore and New York obstetrician for whom the institute was named, died in 1974.The Sun regrets the error.WASHINGTON -- Forty-five percent of teen-agers seeking abortions consult their parents in states where they are not required by law to do so, the first major study in a decade of teen-agers and abortions shows.Overall, in 61 percent of the cases, at least one parent knows of the their daughter's decision.

Emergency contraception, or the "morning-after pill," is playing a growing role in reducing abortions in the United States and may account for almost half of the recent decline in abortions, according to a new study by a leading reproductive health research center. The study, by researchers at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, involved surveying a nationwide representative sample of more than 10,000 abortion patients in 1994 and 2000. During that period, the number of abortions fell from 1.4 million in 1994 to 1.3 million in 2000, while the use of emergency contraception increased slightly.

In response to the March 15 column, "Contraceptive isn't bad, no matter what GOP candidates tell," the writer probably meant "mandate," not "contraceptive. " GOP candidates don't like federal mandates that infringe on the religious freedom for which the United States was founded. I am proud to live in a country where people are free to worship as they choose, dress and display symbols according to religious beliefs, and not forced to defy religious beliefs such as not working on the Sabbath.

Perhaps lost in the cacophony of the debt ceiling debate in Congress was news that the federal government will now require insurance companies to provide a substantial list of preventative care measures for women, including mammography, domestic violence counseling and breast-feeding support, without requiring a co-pay or a deductible. If you heard anything at all about this, it was probably conservatives complaining that the list also includes birth control pills and the dreaded morning-after pill, which interrupts the fertilization cycle before a fertilized egg can attach to the uterine wall.

Bay bridge driver impaired, imprudent In the article "No criminal charges in fatal Bay Bridge accident" (Dec. 19), Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Frank M. Kratovil Jr. is quoted as saying that Candy Lynn Baldwin's actions in causing the accident in August do not fall within the "gross negligence" requirement for manslaughter. Ms. Baldwin was sleep-deprived and had been drinking prior to the accident that took John Robert Short's life. Obviously her judgment and driving skills were impaired.

Emergency contraception, or the "morning-after pill," is playing a growing role in reducing abortions in the United States and may account for almost half of the recent decline in abortions, according to a new study by a leading reproductive health research center. The study, by researchers at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, involved surveying a nationwide representative sample of more than 10,000 abortion patients in 1994 and 2000. During that period, the number of abortions fell from 1.4 million in 1994 to 1.3 million in 2000, while the use of emergency contraception increased slightly.

WASHINGTON -- Positive peer pressure from close friends is helping teens avoid risky sexual behavior, according to reports issued today on Capitol Hill.Rates of pregnancy, birth and abortion continue to drop among teens, according to a 50-state report released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of New York.The institute reported these national trends for 1996 among women ages 15 to 19:* Pregnancy rates fell 4 percent from 1995, to 97 per 1,000 women.* Birth rates also fell 4 percent, to 54 per 1,000.

While contraceptives might seem readily available almost anywhere today, many health insurance plans actually do not include coverage of birth control, or neglect to give information about the coverage they provide.A new study says managed care organizations frequently offer no such coverage out of a misplaced concern about costs."It's undeniable that for an insurer to pay for pregnancy is many, many, many times more expensive than paying for contraception," said Rachel Gold, a researcher with the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a family planning research and advocacy organization that sponsored the study.

With the Republican Party poised to reaffirm its position that abortion should be banned, an abortion-rights institute is to release a study today revealing that thousands of women who have had the procedure are affiliated with religions that crusade against abortion.The study of nearly 10,000 women nationwide who had abortions in 1994 and early 1995 found that despite the Roman Catholic Church's strong opposition to abortion, 31.3 percent of the abortion patients surveyed were Catholic. And 18.1 percent of the 10,000 patients identified themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians.

The number of abortions performed in the United States fell in 1992 to the lowest level since 1979, a decline that suggests a greater acceptance of unwed motherhood as well as a drop in availability of abortion in some parts of the country, a new study says.A survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York found that 1,529,000 abortions were performed in 1992. In 1979, there were 1,498,000 abortions. But that number rose, and throughout the 1980s it remained near 1.6 million, the researchers said.

When Houston officials launched a frantic search for a child named Cindy Garcia, believed to be 10 years old and eight months pregnant, the nation was horrified. More so when the girl's mother said she had been running away from home since the age of 8 to have sex with her 22-year-old boyfriend.When the child and her boyfriend were found and the facts were clarified -- she is 14, not 10, and they had been living as husband and wife in a modest Houston bungalow decorated and stocked with baby things -- this horrific tale appeared to lose some of its edge.