September 2008 Archives
Sep 29 2008
Unplanned Pregnancy - Not Just a Teen Issue
According to a report released last Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortions in the U.S. has continued to decline steadily since 1990. This decline has been the most dramatic among teen girls (younger than age 20). In fact, between 1989 and 2004, the abortion rate among teen girls decreased 53% (compared to 26% overall).
The proportion of abortions obtained by teen girls also dropped dramatically during the last three decades while the proportion of abortions to women age 20-24 has remained at roughly one-third since 1974. Furthermore, the majority of all abortions (57%) occur to women in their twenties. At the same time, 60% of all abortions occur to women who have already had at least one child.
Clearly unplanned pregnancy is not just a teen problem.
Sep 24 2008
Sesno Says No (Or NPR Does Sex Education)
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Campaign CEO Sarah Brown and others guests appeared on NPR's Diane Rehm Show yesterday (CNN pooh bah and all-around-good-egg Frank Sesno was the guest host) for lively discussion of the state of sex education in the United States.
The one-hour program also featured:
- Valerie Huber, executive director, National Abstinence Education Association
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Debra Hauser, executive vice president, Advocates for Youth
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Stan Weed, director and CEO, Institute for Research and Evaluation
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Douglas Kirby, senior research scientist, Education, Training and Research Associates
To listen in Real Audio move your mouse and click here.
To listen in Windows Media Player make that mouse click here.
Sep 23 2008
Dr. Drew to the Rescue

If you thought dealing with Jeff Conaway's addiction (not to mention his girlfriend) on "Celebrity Rehab" was a daunting task, wait until you see this. Dr. Drew is going to help teens and parents talk about sex.
"Sex...with Mom and Dad" premieres Monday on MTV. And not a moment too soon.
We hear it constantly from teens and young adults—parents have more influence over their kids' sex lives than anything else. Certainly more influence than parents themselves think they have, and also more influence than media, friends, school, religion or anything else for that matter. Which is good—if you have parents who know how to talk about sex, love, values, and relationships or who at least care enough to make sure the messages their kids get from them about these issues are rooted in self-respect and responsibility. But that's not always as easy as it sounds. After all, it can be hard to talk about this stuff—embarrassing, awkward, confusing. Parents may feel that they need to be experts (not true) or that their own past calls their authority into question (also not true). Kids may feel weird about these conversations (almost always true) and may resist a parent's efforts to start a discussion (you can bank on this one) or their own desire to have their questions answered. All of which can lead to misinformation, bad choices, family turmoil, and more.
So what can you do? Short of enlisting the expert advice of Dr. Drew Pinsky—not just a TV doc but an actual board certified, medical school-teaching, honest-to goodness physician, who incidentally has teenage children of his own—you can actually do quite a bit. We have some handy, dandy tips for parents to get you started. The most important thing is to remember that it's not The Talk - but rather a conversation that lasts a lifetime. Age-appropriate information about feelings and body parts, honest discussions about what's acceptable in your family (which is often very different than what's acceptable in Hollywood or even among peers), and wide-ranging conversations about dreams for the future (and what would stand in the way of those dreams, like say too-early parenthood for example) are important.
Tune in next Monday at 7p ET/PT. Let us know what you think.
Sep 18 2008
Wiscosinites Are Serious About Teen Pregnancy
I had the privilege of spending the last couple of days in
We also spent some time with the talented folks at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel whose editorial board has named teen pregnancy as one of its top agenda items for 2008. Talk about raising the level of public discourse. What better way to make people face the facts than to make them swallow the truth with their morning coffee? And here's the truth: In
We also met the good people who are running
I might have been in
Sep 16 2008
Abstinence Redux
Just published: A special issue of the journal Sexuality Research & Social Policy focusing on abstinence education. Read all about it here.
