Teen Pregnancy

On television, a baby wails uncontrollably. "If you get pregnant," the commercial's narrator says, "this is what the rest of your teen-age years will sound like. You can go farther when you don't go all the way."On billboards, 10-foot-high letters in spray-painted graffiti spell "VIRGIN," above the words, "Teach your kid it's not a dirty word."In classrooms, posters depict the hard realities of adolescent pregnancy in graphic terms. One shows a young man cradling an infant. "A baby costs $474 a month.

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.

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.

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.

In her commentary on teen pregnancy ("Teen pregnancy is poverty's offspring," April 16), Susan Reimer perpetuates the justification that poverty is the primary reason teens engage in sex and become pregnant. This begs the question: Why, when we have always had poverty, did we not see the rate of unwed teen mothers in the past that we witness today? I grew up in a section of Baltimore City that had its share of immigrants, blue collar workers and other individuals who would be considered poor by today's standards.

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.

POLICY PLANNERS and government officials have been spending enormous amounts of energy devising new programs to prevent teen pregnancy as part of recent welfare reform proposals.The challenge to the planners is stark, about 357,000 children were born to unmarried teen-agers in 1990. To create effective pregnancy prevention programs, planners must take into account the range of sexual and emotional experiences that can lead an adolescent to early, unplanned parenthood.Absent from the teen-pregnancy debate has been any discussion of the critical role played by childhood sexual abuse.

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.

A few years ago Bronwyn W. Mayden was cooking dinner when her son, then 6, came running inside with an urgent question: "Mom, what is sex?"As executive director of the Governor's Council on Adolescent Pregnancy, Ms. Mayden was earning her living by talking to parents and young people about sex. So how did she respond?"

After more than a decade of working with women to combat the spread of HIV, a West Baltimore nonprofit organization will now share its teen pregnancy prevention message with both girls and boys. Women Accepting Responsibility has worked with teen girls, new mothers and incarcerated women since 1995, but the programs were always gender-specific. But the group celebrated a more than $4 million grant Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Adolescent Health that will allow it to reach young men as well.

Leave it to some thoughtful physicians to put good medicine ahead of good politics. Last year, the Obama administration wrongly chose to limit access of teens to the emergency contraceptive pill known as Plan B. This week, pediatricians are urging their fellow doctors to do something that should help correct that error. In a position paper released Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that doctors prescribe Plan B to girls under the age of 17 regardless of whether they are sexually active - or have some "Plan A" contraceptive in place such as birth control pills.

In her commentary on teen pregnancy ("Teen pregnancy is poverty's offspring," April 16), Susan Reimer perpetuates the justification that poverty is the primary reason teens engage in sex and become pregnant. This begs the question: Why, when we have always had poverty, did we not see the rate of unwed teen mothers in the past that we witness today? I grew up in a section of Baltimore City that had its share of immigrants, blue collar workers and other individuals who would be considered poor by today's standards.

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.

    So it's official. No one really cares that Newt Gingrich is an egotistical, vainglorious scoundrel, at least where women are concerned. Sure, his ex-wife went on TV two days before the South Carolina primary and re-dished a bunch of dirt about their marriage, but based on the outcome there, it seems GOP voters got over the whole family values thing a long time ago. At the very least, it seems that unapologetic combativeness is proving a more effective campaign strategy than bragging about the longevity of your marriage or releasing enviably wholesome family portraits.

Susan Reimer was right on the money when she suggested "[paying] for the programs that help teens understand sex and make good decisions about it, and [paying] for the health care services that provide them with options for contraception," as a sensible approach to preventing teen pregnancies. ("Preventing teen pregnancy saves taxpayers billions," June 15). As a national nonprofit whose vision is: "a national community where all adolescents and young adults, including teen parents, are supported and empowered to lead healthy sexual, reproductive, and family lives," Healthy Teen Network couldn't agree more.

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.

Throughout Baltimore City, a new and rather arresting image has been plastered on billboards: the word VIRGIN, spelled out in 10-foot-high letters, and then the reminder: "Teach your kids it's not a dirty word."The billboards are the latest phase in the statewide offensive in the war against teen-age pregnancy launched by Campaign for Our Children, a unique public-private sector venture headed by Baltimore City advertising mogul Hal Donofrio.On a modest $1 million a year, two-thirds of the funding provided by the business community, the organization runs a slick multi-media advertising campaign geared to teen-agers -- complete with radio and television commercials, newspapers, T-shirts, buttons and even a 24-hour hot line -- which work in conjunction with a classroom program, including counseling to encourage abstinence among 9- to 14-year olds.

After more than a decade of working with women to combat the spread of HIV, a West Baltimore nonprofit organization will now share its teen pregnancy prevention message with both girls and boys. Women Accepting Responsibility has worked with teen girls, new mothers and incarcerated women since 1995, but the programs were always gender-specific. But the group celebrated a more than $4 million grant Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Adolescent Health that will allow it to reach young men as well.

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.