Some scary things to consider this Halloween:

• The teen birth rate is on the rise after 15 straight years of decline.
• Fully seven in ten pregnancies among single 20-somethings are unplanned.
• More than half of pregnancies reported by unmarried men in their 20s are unplanned.
• Rosie O'Donnell is launching a new radio show.
• The magic less sex/more contraception formula that drove down the teen pregnancy rate over the past decade plus now seems to have morphed into a more sex/less contraception formula.
• 3 in ten girls in the United States get pregnant by age 20.
• Mariah Carey continues to record and release music.

What are some things that are scaring you? Let us know.

1.4 million people bought The Sims 3 in the first week it was released, and I was one of them. For those of you who are not familiar with the franchise, here is the premise: The player creates characters, or "sims," and then controls pretty much everything about them, such as their clothes, house, and traits, and then makes all of their decisions for them. I know this sounds like it would be a total waste of time -- it is -- but it's really entertaining.

And when it comes to starting a family in the Sims, things get really interesting. Sims can "WooHoo" without the risk (or, according to some players, with very little risk) of getting pregnant, and to get pregnant the user has to select "Try for baby." As some people have said in various forums, "WooHoo" is considered by some to mean sex with contraception. Statistically speaking, this makes perfect sense. Even with perfect use of the pill, there's still a 1% risk of getting pregnant.

For "research purposes," I wanted to see what would happen if my single, broke Sim had a baby. She had no desire for a baby, but I control everything she does so she didn't have a choice. I had her invite her boyfriend over to her house and, long story short, when she suggested to him that they try to have a baby he rejected her advances completely (as evidenced in the above photo). And to think, he had no problem when he was WooHoo-ing with her the night before...

I had the great good fortune to attend yesterday's White House event during which President Obama spoke movingly of the critical role that a father plays in the lives of his children and the important support and companionship a father offers to his children's mother.  He spoke, as always, with a deep authenticity and commitment that were palpable, and all of us were touched by his message and by his own personal story, which made him a most compelling messenger.  Many in the room were leaders of the fatherhood field -- men who run programs, do related research, exhort their peers to see fatherhood as a privilege as well as a responsibility, and others leaders, too. 
 
I asked myself repeatedly what the connection was between my 40+  year interest in pregnancy planning and prevention, and the remarkable collection of people in the East Room.  The answer, I hope, is obvious, and it is simply that children are more likely to have present, engaged fathers when pregnancy is undertaken deliberately and  is based on a commitment between the two parties to each other and to the decades required to raise a child in this complex society.  I actually think this connection is quite obvious, although  yesterday no one mentioned the importance of exercising great care in becoming a father in the first place.  Understandably, the main emphasis was being the best dad you can be to the children you already have.
 
Interestingly, no attention was given to why so many children are growing up without a father actively involved in their lives.  Consider for example the fact that almost 40 percent of births are now to unmarried women; for babies born to women 20 to 24, the percentage is 60. Now it is true that some of these unmarried mothers will marry the fathers of these children  --  perhaps after several years of living together -- but that is often not the case and these children often spend some or all of their growing up years in father-absent homes. I wonder how many national leaders will talk about this particular challenge when the Father's Day speeches crank up to fever pitch this Sunday.
 
I mentioned this to a reporter last week -- that advocates of father involvement  rarely address non-marital child-bearing -- and he said, "I never really thought about that..."   But I think President Obama has. And I think the rest of us should too.  Are fathers just nice if they happen to be around?  Or should we tell the truth, as the President did today, which is that children can make it without fathers (he being the shining example), but that the preferred scenario is committed parents raising children together.  And one of the best ways to move in that direction is to ask both men and women to think hard about starting  a family -- when, with whom and under what circumstances.
 
So, my one friendly suggestion to the Administration as it embarks on a national conversation about responsible fatherhood and healthy families is to include explicit attention to pregnancy planning and prevention. This entails personal responsibility on the part of men and women (along with responsible policies on the part of the public and private sector), which in turn will contribute to less non-marital childbearing, a greater chance that children will grow up with  present and involved fathers, and stronger families.