A Moral Victory on Teen Pregnancy

Yesterday, the National Center for Health Statistics announced the latest teenage birth rate -- it's dropped to 40 per 1000, the lowest rate ever recorded, the lowest rate in the past 65 years.
This is a remarkable public health accomplishment. Sex education programs that promote abstinence AND contraception AND better availability of family planning services as well as better contraceptive methods have made a difference.

http://debrahaffner.blogspot.com

Teenagers are more likely to delay having sexual intercourse than they were a decade ago (which accounts for about 15% of the decline in births according to a recent study) and much more likely to use contraception and condoms than any other generation of young people.

This is also a moral accomplishment. It means that while the adults are fighting over the content of sexuality education programs and even such no-brainers as protecting girls against cervical cancer, the teenagers are getting the message and behaving more responsibly. It also means that many adults -- parents, the media, the folks who run good sex education Internet sites for teens, and yes, many faith-based institutions, are doing their job.

Let's take a moment to celebrate today's teenagers and the adults who are serving them.

But: The U.S. continues to have one of the highest teenage birth rates in the developed world. We can and must do better. Stay tuned on February 12th for the release of the Religious Institute's new "Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Adolescent Sexuality."