Teen Sex in America: Time for the Honest Debate

Bristol Palin, daughter of Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin was on the Today Show this morning to talk about teen pregnancy. The Palin family announced only a few days after Sarah Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate in August 2008 that their daughter Bristol, at the time 17, was in fact pregnant and planned to wed her high school boyfriend and father to the child, Levi Johnson, also 17 at the time. Now, five months or so after the birth of their son, Palin and Johnson are no longer together but the talk shows and gossip blogs have jumped all over the apparently dramatic break-up, which has also turned the spotlight on teen-pregnancy, sex education, abstinence and birth control.

Palin holding her son Tripp as she sat on the set of the Today Show talked about how abstinence should really be on the only choice before you are married and if she had the choice to do it all over again, she wouldn't have had sex with her boyfriend and wouldn't have sex with anyone until she was married.

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The debate on when to have sex is not as black and white as either group (abstinence only or safe sex practices) would like to to seem. And the reality is that teens will have sex when they decide they want to (whether they are ready or not is an entirely different topic). What is interesting Palin's appearance on the Today Show is that her segment aired at a time that none of her target audience might be watching. Parents do have an important role to play in the decision their children make, a discussion around when to have sex should be discussed early and often. It was hard not to feel cynical that Palin was merely on the show to counter some of the stories Johnson told in recent TV appearances.

A few statistics from the Guttmacher Institute:

PREGNANCY

•Each year, almost 750,000 women aged 15-19 become pregnant. Overall, 75 pregnancies occur every year per 1,000 women aged 15-19; this rate has declined 36% since its peak in 1990.[25]

•The majority of the decline in teen pregnancy rates is due to more consistent contraceptive use; the rest is due to higher proportions of teens choosing to delay sexual activity.[26]

Teen Pregnancy Outcomes
Nearly a third of all teen pregnancies end in abortion.




•Black women have the highest teen pregnancy rate (134 per 1,000 women aged 15-19), followed by Hispanics (131 per 1,000) and non-Hispanic whites (48 per 1,000).[27]

•The pregnancy rate among black teens decreased 40% between 1990 and 2000, more than the overall U.S. teen pregnancy rate declined during the same period (36%).[28]

•Eighty-two percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned; they account for about one in five of all unintended pregnancies annually.[29]

•Two-thirds of all teen pregnancies occur among 18-19-year-olds.[30]

•Teen pregnancy rates are much higher in the United States than in many other developed countries-twice as high as in England and Wales or Canada, and eight times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan.[31]

Bristol Palin is a pretty lucky young woman. She has a comfortable home, a supportive family and has the luxury of continuing her education and raising her son at the same time. Not all teens have that opportunity and access to information about contraceptives and safe practices and more importantly WHY you should practice safe sex (not only to prevent an unwanted pregnancy but also to protect against STDS) would not only limit the number of unwanted pregnancies but also reduce the need for abortions. No matter what side of the aisle you stand on that debate, an abortion is an emotionally and physically jarring process, which I am sure no one would recommend unless absolutely necessary. It also not an ideal form of birth control especially when in most cases there is relatively easy access to condoms and other forms of birth control. It is hard to watch the likes of Bristol Palin, codling her young son as she says why teen pregnancy is bad. If she was really committed to educating her peers, she would talk a bit more openly and honestly about her experience. It is hard to believe that she didn't enjoy having sex, rather she didn't enjoy the sudden added responsibility she is now saddled with. What would she do differently, you would ask her and her response, "I would take more responsibility for my actions at the time, I would insist that birth control be more easily accessible and I would advise my mother, the governor of Alaska that the abstinence only programs didn't work in our home, so it shouldn't be assumed that they work in the public school systems."

And then she would have the conversation about sex, pregnancy and safe practices in school auditoriums and at after school clubs and activities--not on the Today Show.