Alicia Florrick is so much more than The Good Wife (Tuesdays, 10p, on CBS). She's a good mom, a good lawyer, a good dresser, smart, calm, and cool. She was hit broadside by allegations (and admissions) that her husband was sleeping with prostitutes and taking bribes in his post as state's attorney and she's picking up the pieces of her life, her family and her career.

It's clear that CBS and the show's viewers see her as an aspirational figure. She is the hero in nearly every storyline. She is the character you root for. She handles every challenge with grace and aplomb. The show's costume designer fields questions from fans about her pitch-perfect wardrobe; advertising sponsor Buick not only buys commercial time during the show but enjoys a bit of corporate synergy when we see Alicia behind the wheel of her own Buick in many episodes.

And just last week we found out that Alicia's preferred method of contraception is the IUD. (Now that her philandering husband is out of jail and back at home, she says she had the IUD removed and she's got condoms at the ready. Not that she has any plans to re-establish marital relations. And the condoms may be her teenage son's secret stash. Stay tuned...)

I had the opportunity to attend ISIS's terrific Annual Youth, Technology & Sexual Health (aka. Sex::Tech) Conference for the first time this year.  It was a great opportunity for me to continue my edification in the field of reproductive health, but not just as an attendee; The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy was a sponsor of this year's conference and I was asked to participate in a panel entitled "National Prevention Programs: Effective Tools for Local Communities."



During my presentation I spoke about our work on the SexReally.com website and showed a video that became a hot topic of conversation during and after the conference. The video shows guys hanging out "in their natural environment" talking about sex.  Later in the video, we cut to one of their girlfriends who says that it might not be so bad if she got pregnant and that her boyfriend would make a good father.  Cut back to him and he's talking about ogling some unknown woman (not his girlfriend) and we can conclude that he might not be as ready as she thinks.  The point?  Be careful, have a plan, make sure your partner's plan is compatible with yours, and use contraception until you are both really ready.



I was excited when Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution approached me to develop a "family planning" module for low-income couples participating in healthy relationship and marriage education programs. After all, my first job out of social work school was with Planned Parenthood, I have a specialty in sexuality education, and I've spent the last 20 years or so developing programs to support low-income parents and families. It was a perfect assignment for me, bringing together several of my professional worlds.

Okay, I was excited, but I also knew it wasn't going to be easy. The rates of unplanned pregnancy are so very high among unmarried, low-income, African American couples -- the focus of this module -- and the reasons for these high rates are complicated. It helped when our advisory committee decided that the module alone could not be expected to change behaviors and that participating couples would need case management support to reach their goals related to pregnancy planning.

This just in...

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced today that the teen birth rate in the great state of California has declined to a record low. Since 1990, the teen birth rate in the Golden State has plummeted--wait for it--a whopping 39%. 

What gives? CDPH notes that they administer a number of teen pregnancy prevention programs, including the Community Challenge Grant Program, the Information and Education Program, and the Family PACT (Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment) Program; the California Department of Social Services supports the Cal-Learn Program; and the California Department of Education funds the California School Age Families Education (CalSAFE) Program.

In short, the kitchen sink approach seems to work. Through multiple Governors (both Ds and Rs), the state has remained committed to preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy. Through lean budget times and salad days, the state has recognized the importance of a strategy that welcomes multiple strategies and interventions--clinic access and services, media, support for community programs...the list is long.

Bravo, California. Keep up the good work.

***This post was modified by the author on March 1, 2010.

With Tiger Woods' recent mea culpa, it's easy to feel rather cynical and pessimistic about this institution we call marriage. Results in the just-released State of Our Unions report also give us reason to wonder whether marriage is on its way out, with the percentage of kids born outside of marriage rising from 18% to 40% just since 1980 and the number of kids whose parents are "just living together" rising from just under half a million to over 2.5 million during that same period. But this report also tells us not to count marriage out just yet--not only because marriage is still the most beneficial environment for families (that's old news), but because the upcoming generation is counting on it. For high school seniors, 71% of boys and 82% of girls said "having a good marriage and family life is extremely important" to them.

In data collected by The National Campaign, 47% of 18 to 24 year olds say they expect to marry and have a baby with their current partner. Here's the problem. They don't know how to get there. While most high school seniors are telling us how important a good marriage is to them, over half also said "Having a child without being married is experimenting with a worthwhile lifestyle or not affecting anyone else." (What?) And, of those 18 to 24 year olds who expect to walk down the aisle and then have a baby, we know a lot of them will have the baby first, and then never walk down the aisle. This doesn't mean we should give up on marriage. Quite the opposite--it means we need to talk to teens and young adults in a way that says--yeah, we get that you want love, and marriage, and the baby carriage...someday--let's talk about how (and when) to get there.