National Campaign

Teen pregnancy news has gone from the mundane to the sensational. Recent data show that the declines in teen sex and improvements in contraceptive use have leveled off and that the teen birth rate is on the rise for the first time in 15 years. Unfortunately, that news generated not much more than yawns. But last week, Jamie Lynn Spears - an unmarried, 17-year-old television star and sister to Britney - gave birth to a baby girl, sending at best a confusing message to all her "tween" fans.

NEXT TIME you're passing through Havana, stop by the Museo de la Alfabetizacion.There you'll see people in their 50s, 60s and 70s, some with grandchildren in tow, proudly finding the letters they wrote to Fidel Castro some 35 years ago.Permanently stored in the museum, the letters have a common message: I've learned to read, and here's the proof.More than 700,000 Cubans dispatched that message in the early 1960s. In one of the most remarkable literacy campaigns in history, cadres of literate Cubans took to the sugar fields and city streets of the island.

Carlene Coale of Fallston figures peace of mind -- and the life of her daughter -- is worth a little awkwardness once in a while. So before she lets her 16-year-old visit a friend's house for the first time, she asks the friend's parents: Is there a gun in the house? Only when the answer is no -- or if it's yes but she's told the gun is locked away and unloaded, does she allow the visit. Only once in three years has this caused a problem, she says. An angry father told her it was none of her business and refused to say anything further about it. "I told him if my daughter is coming to your house, it is my business," says Coale, who subsequently refused to let her daughter visit.

There is good news - and some familiar bad news - in recent research into the stubborn question of why our babies have babies when it is such a spectacularly bad idea for both mother and child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that teen births have hit an all-time low. In 2010, there were 34.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, a 9 percent drop from the year before. What makes this news even more welcome is that the birthrate among teens ticked up in the mid-2000s after 20 years of declines, and researchers were at a loss to explain why. Researchers are cautiously attributing the decrease to the public service campaigns that urge kids to delay sex for a while, and then to use contraceptives the first time and every time.

It is no longer teenagers stumbling into pregnancy and parenthood about whom we should be fretting. Those numbers continue to drop, because the kids are having less sex and using more contraception. No, it is the 20-something women who are putting babies before marriage at a frightening rate - and not because they don't know any better. They are sure the good man and the picket fence are out of reach, but they still want children. Why wait for what they don't think will happen? That's the picture painted by a new study, "Knot Yet: The benefits and costs of delayed marriage in America," prepared by researchers at the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Relate Institute.

Those who remember the Academy Award-winning documentary "Scared Straight," which showed a group of lifers from New Jersey's Rahway State Prison terrifying a bunch of cocky juvenile delinquent boys with tales of jailhouse horror, will understand when I say that MTV's "16 and Pregnant" is the chick version. The show follows teen girls who find themselves pregnant — from the pregnancy test all the way to the delivery room and home again with baby — and it includes graphic scenes of pain, both physical and emotional.

When it comes to teens having babies, it's a matter of pay me now or pay me later. You can pay for the programs that help teens understand sex and make good decisions about it, and you can pay for the health care services that provide them with options for contraception. Or you can pay for the misfortunes that are more likely to befall the child of a teen mother: health problems, behavioral and educational issues, and a greater likelihood of criminal troubles in adolescence and young adulthood.

We are pretty sure of our stereotypes in this country, and we hold them close. One of them is that teen pregnancy is an inner-city problem, a poor problem, a black problem. Another is that "rural" equals "farm," and life there is wholesome and God-fearing. Like so many of the things we believe to be true, these aren't. Not exactly. New research from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reveals that the teen birth rate is a third higher in rural counties than in other areas of the country, regardless of age, race or ethnicity.

Coca-Cola Co. is hoping that the coming long, lazy days of summer will boost sales by creating new interest among teen-agers in guzzling Coca-Cola Classic.And to that end, the company is offering a little incentive: 45 million free voice mail accounts for America's teens.In the Baltimore area, selected teens have received the voice mail offer along with the chance to use a credit-card-size Coke card for discounts at the Baltimore Zoo, Orioles games and the Family Golf Center in Glen Burnie.

When Marylanders go to the polls tomorrow to vote in the presidential primary, their concerns will represent many of the interests and issues at play in the national campaign. As this map represents, the state has a major urban area, growing suburban communities clustered around Washington, D.C., and largely rural areas in the west and on the Eastern Shore. The economy taxes , the role of the federal government, environmental issues and national security are much on the minds of Marylanders -- liberals, conservatives and moderates.