With all the focus on the economy it was easy to miss the monumental news that teen pregnancy rates are back on the rise, according to a new study from the government’s Centers for Disease Control.
Teen birth rates rose in 26 states and the overall U.S. rate increased for the first time in 15 years. Rates were highest in Mississippi, Texas and New Mexico, and lowest in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts.
If I know my culture war scripts, those on the right will blame: glamorization of sex on TV in movies, insufficient emphasis on abstinence, and cultural problems among blacks and Hispanics. Those on the left will blame insufficient sex education and poverty.
What about the increasing public acceptance of teen prengancy? This is a strange one. This used to be the point that conservatives emphasized and liberals resisted. Remember how it was conservatives who argued that the TV show Murphy Brown glamorized out of wedlock birth?
But in the election campaign, when Sarah Palin’s unmarried teenage daughter got married it was conservatives who took the let’s-not-be-judgmental position and liberals who got their fingers wagging with gusto.
My two cents is that public acceptance of teen pregnancy is a key factor and that popular images DO have an impact. Murphy Brown did legitimize out-of-wedlock pregnancy and Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears made matters worse.
By the way, Sen. Harry Reid has introduced the Prevention First act, a bill to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortion through prevention. The Family Research Council has attacked it as a boon for the “abortion industry” because it funnels money to Planned Parenthood and encourages use of morning after pills.