Sex and the Teenage Girl

Tim's Favorite Blogs

The Weather
Ruffle Your Shuffle
Eschew Obfuscation
IM Earthling
Silk Road
The Huffington Post
Talking Points Memo
American Progress
Citizens For Ethics
Crooks And Liars
Common Cause

Media Matters

Blog Directories

Wednesday, January 7. 2009

Is anyone surprised that seven of the ten states with the highest teen pregnancy rate all happen to be in the Bible Belt? Rhetorical question. Since it is in the Bible Belt we have a preponderance of such idiotic policies like the “abstinence pledge” and abstinence only sex education, i.e. no birth control taught or distributed, how could they not top that list?

In those states, teens have to rely on the old wives’ tales and false legends regarding birth control; are discouraged — threatened in some cases — from using any kind of effective birth control. Instead, they take that abstinence pledge, which has been proven to be ineffective (obviously) and when they do have sex, they do things like squirt fizzing Coca-Cola into their vaginas hoping it does the trick.
 It was proven Coca-Cola — and a few other cola-type soft drinks — does kill sperm, but the method is mostly ineffective because it rarely, if ever, gets past the cervix into the uterus.
 But, I wouldn’t discourage women from doing that. Some of my more adventurous women friends tell me the sensation is marvelous. I would suggest, however, if you do try it, but you’re cutting sugar from your system, use a diet beverage.

Then of course the Fundies want to make it next to impossible for anyone, teens in particular, from getting abortions, so the avenues available to teen girls in those states are drastically limited. Not to mention, they are continuously pounded with the messages that they are going to Hell for having sex, for thinking sex thoughts, using birth control and definitely for having an abortion. How pleasant.

The counter-argument, from the Christian fundies who push their religious agenda on the rest of us, is that it’s all the fault of the media that glorifies and promotes pre-marital sex. We see it on TV everyday! I have to admit, the biggest reason for watching shows like Mama’s Boys and The Bachelor (to name two) is to see all the hot sexiness.

While studies have shown TV to have an influence on teen sexuality, for several years teen pregnancy was on the decline, until 2006 when it began to tick up again. Clearly there are other, more influential factors at work.

In states like California and New York, where we have large population centers, the teen pregnancy rates are roughly half of the top three states on the list (the rate is counted by number of pregnancies per 1,000 teens).

Compared to other Western democracies, that include Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and other nations, the United States leads all with the number of teens getting pregnant. And the television in Europe is far sexier than it is here in the states! The difference: In most other Western democracies, a sensible approach to teen sexuality is taken, free of any misguided and misleading influence from religion. It isn’t a coincidence that Europe leads us in methods of birth control.

Religion is not just our national embarrassment, it costs us tax dollars. Who do you think pays for these unwanted pregnancies? We do with our tax dollars.

Which brings up Governor Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol. Her baby was born about a month ago. What I found ironic was that the governor and her daughter were praised for the situation and how they handled it because it showed they were just like the rest of us. Really?

How did the Palin and Johnston families handle it? Their kids dropped out of school and the father of the child, Levi Johnston, got an apprenticeship in the North Slope oil fields, arranged for by his future mother and father-in-laws. But, because he didn’t have a high school diploma (or equivalent) Johnston lost that job. Sometimes nepotism just isn’t enough.

Yeah, let’s praise that shining example.

The top ten states leading the nation in teen pregnancies, starting from the highest rate: Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia.

Originally, this was going to be about … jeez … I forgot already. Oh yeah: remember four years ago when Bush was pushing to privatize social security and force everyone to put their Social Security earnings into the stock market? Aren’t you glad most of Congress disagreed and it didn’t happen? I know my fund, which is paltry as it is, would be nearly worthless had that happened. That’s a topic for another day.

Posted by Tim Forkes in NEWS and POLITICS at 12:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

No comments

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry
Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.