Authorities in Texas have removed 53 teen girls from a polygamist compound and they report that 31 of them are pregnant or have already had children.  That's 57% of the girls.  Creepy, dangerous, sad, shocking, awful - it seems like everyone has an opinion.  It also seems as if there are unlimited resources to deal with this problem.  Child Protective Services, the foster care system, law enforcement, the news media, the healthcare system, religious entities, groups like the ACLU - all these and more are concerned, engaged, watching, helping, hoping.

These girls and their children are important, and their fates and futures hang in the balance to be sure.  But what about the millions of other teenage girls in this country who are growing up in situations which lead them to teen pregnancy and childbearing?  There are communities all over the United States where more than half of girls get pregnant as teens.  Among Latina girls in this country, 53% get pregnant at least once as teens.  Among African American girls, 51%.  In fact, 30% of ALL teen girls in America get pregnant before age 20.  That means every state, every county, every community, every high school, and more and more junior high schools too.

Where is the outcry about these girls?  Where is the intervention?  Where is the government, the news media, the cultural intelligentsia?  Why are the little voices inside our heads that are asking so many questions about the FLDS girls - about their clothes, their lifestyles, their beliefs, their parents, their community - why are those voices so silent about the fates and futures of the girls elsewhere in this country?

One of those compound girls had a baby yesterday.  She delivered her son while child welfare officials, state troopers, reporters, and others waited outside the hospital maternity ward.  She is one of 750,000 teen girls who will have a baby this year.  Who is waiting for them?

Let mine be blogosphere comment 67 million regarding 15-year-old Miley Cyrus and the nude-but-covered photo of her that appears in the current issue of Vanity Fair. Three modest thoughts: 

1. A parent interviewed on Good Morning America this morning suggested that---I'm paraphrasing here---that the photo wasn't as bad as it could be...that you couldn't see the curve of Miley's back..that Annie Liebovitz is a respected photographer, etc.  Huh?  This is not a discussion about art and taste and nudity, this is a discussion about a 15-year-old girl who posed nude and the publication of that photo. 
2. The GMA segment went on to suggest that the Miley photo could serve as a teachable moment (now in the running as one of the most overused phrases of 2008).  What's the teachable moment here?  Fifteen year old girls shouldn't be asked to pose nude.  End of lesson. 
3. When this story broke yesterday about the Miley photo, the Vanity Fair website apparently crashed due to overwhelming traffic.  Remember people, it's not what they're selling, it's what you're buying.

In an effort to get the word out about the StayTV Mash Up contest, I came across a really great web resource, Teens Today With Vanessa Van Petten.  Vanessa, a self-described "Gen Y'er", is an author, teen mentor, and general proponent of getting teens informed about the risk of teen pregnancy - you can see why we like her!  We also love her site and she was gracious enough to give us a little shout out...so, to return the favor, get yourself to Teens Today and read her latest entry about how parents can talk to teens about sex, love, and relationships.  And, if you can't bear to navigate away from Pregnant Pause for even a second, here is a clip of the vlog (video blog) that accompanies the post:

Starr went to the clinic on Friday to have an abortion.  She's 16 and the situation is pretty bad.  She went by herself and despite putting on a brave face, she was terrified.  She can't have an abortion in Pennsylvania (where she lives) without her parents knowing so she rode a bike to the bus station and took the bus to a clinic in New Jersey.  Her parents don't even know she's had sex and they certainly don't know she's pregnant.  They've already forbidden her from seeing her boyfriend and her father even threatened to kill him.  As it turns out, she didn't go through with the abortion after all.  Moments before the procedure was to begin, her boyfriend showed up at the clinic...

Pretty dramatic stuff, huh?

Well it should be--it's a soap opera.  But "One Life to Live" is dealing with some very real-life issues in the story of 16-year-old Starr Manning's pregnancy.  And one thing that's been made quite clear to Starr, and by extension to her fans, is that once there's an unplanned pregnancy, none of the options are easy.

Two events of interest taking place deep inside the Beltway this Wednesday:

1. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing Wednesday on abstinence education programs. 
2. The Brookings Institution is holding a gabfest (they are always interesting) with some thoughtful folks on the effects of media on young people and children.  The Future of Children Journal, "Children and Electronic Media," published by Brookings and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, will be released at the event.

More in due course on both...