The religious right have won a major battle on the front of teen pregnancy with the announcement that Trump will shift the federal funding program toward abstinence-focused education.
though abstinence is a good tool to combat the issue not teaching children safe sex is socially responsible as it not only lead to unwanted pregnancy but the spreading of diseases.
The Trump administration will shift federal funding aimed at reducing teen pregnancy rates to programs that teach abstinence.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday the availability of grants through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, (TPPP) a grant program created under former President Obama that funds organizations and programs working to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
Trump’s HHS announced, however, that unlike under the Obama administration, grants will be geared toward organizations that teach abstinence education to teens instead of the comprehensive sex ed approach the previous administration supported.
Idiotic. It’s been proven time and again that these programs don’t work. You want fewer teen pregnancies? Sex ed, easy access to contraception. that’s what works.
I agree with you. I work with young teens and these teens know about birth control–and choose not to use it. Then there is the segment of teens being pressured by their peers to engage in sex. There is nothing wrong with teaching teens that abstinence is a viable option for their friends to want to go this route.
Some teens are going to insist on having sex–insisting on unprotected sex at that–and no program is going to stop them. Other teens, ones feeling pressured by peers, may well benefit from the support and good reasons presented for choosing abstinence.
Can’t believe the number of adults who want to encourage and push teens into going ahead with having sex.
Pay “government” funds to create HS and college graduates whose ONLY skill and ONLY interest is telling other people “how to be,” “what to think.” (About sex, about religion, about the prevelance of racism, about the environment, about yucky rural people.)
Pretend that teen pregnancy happens because teens don’t know about condoms and the pill.
Pay “government” funds to the aforementioned graduates to tell other people “how to be,” and “what to think.”
Pay “government” funds to raise and carefore the resulting unwanted unloved children.
There are also studies that show sexual activity among teenagers has been declining over the past ten years. Not sure what that means, but it appears more than one study notes this.
What’s behind the recent trends? One possible factor is the economy: A Pew Research Center analysis tied the declining birth rate to the flailing economy. And birth rates for teens fell faster than they did for all females ages 15-44 from 2007 to 2014 (42% and 9% declines, respectively).
What else is contributing to the decline in teen birth rates? Less sex, use of more effective contraception and more information about pregnancy prevention.
From your link. Seems like there are several factors - one being abstinence.
I agree. It’s the difference between abstinence only versus comprehensive sexual education. Comprehensive sexual education can still discuss the importance of abstinence while teaching aspects of safe sex and contraception.
