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.

Health and Human Rights, Global Update

While it seems the media has (finally)stopped completely sensationalizing the Swine Flu outbreak, Mexico and its citizens are feeling the pandemic squeeze. Several Mexican citizens have been forced into quarantine in China, soccer matches have been called-off with Mexican teams in Chile, and flights from neighboring countries to Mexico have been canceled in recent days. Perhaps improperly labeled, the so-called Swine Flu contains genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia, as well as avian and human genes, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. China's reaction has been the most severe (it also placed in quarantine 10 Canadian citizens suspected to be infected with the virus) most likely in response to the last global pandemic SARS, which originated in Hong Kong.

Swine Flu and HIV/AIDS

This one has been floating around the Internet (I have received it both in my inbox and seen it in the facebook news feed) but I felt like it was worth repeating.

“It’s funny how 90 people get the swine flu and everyone wears face masks, but millions get AIDS and no one wears a condom. Pass the Truth.”

Don't Call Them "Do-Nothing"

Yesterday, 5 U.S. Congressmen were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy while protesting President Bashir's crimes against humanity. Don't say Congress is completely useless!

Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) along with three activists were arrested on charges of civil disobedience by Secret Service and were released a few hours later after each paying a $100 fine.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, center, is led away in handcuffs by a Secret Service officer during an act of civil disobedience to protest the Sudanese government's ongoing genocide in Darfur on Monday outside the Sudan embassy in Washington, DC.

After reading statements calling on President Obama to pressure the global community into action regarding Darfur, the congressmen and activists crossed the yellow tape and refused to move during the large and reportedly peaceful demonstration, which is what lead to their arrests.

"I hope that is very clear to our administration and to international communities that violence in Darfur must end," said Representative Woolsey. Bashir , she added, "must allow the NGOs back into the country and admit he has only worsened the crisis in Darfur."

It has been over two months now since the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrent for Bashir and since 13 major international relief and aid groups were expelled from the country. This has left over 1 million people at risk and since these events not much has happened. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times reported on his blog yesterday that there is talk of Sudan appeasement by the Obama administration, who appears to be taking the "let's be friends" approach to the Darfur crisis and Bashir.

The fact that nothing has been done by anyone in any country around the world is pretty dispicable. The confict and genocide in Darfur began in 2003 about the same time as the Iraq war began. It has been five years of silence by an international community that seems to have plenty to say about Iraq.

Where is the outrage? Where is the humanity? Where is the responsibility?

Photo credit: Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images

"Well, being a woman is God's creation"

In my role as the awards program assistant at the Global Health Council I have had the opportunity to review close to 100 media entries for our 2009 Excellence in Media awards. Many of these nominations were first rate, and all deserve recognition for promoting and highlighting global health issues. There are a few that particularly stand-out for me this year, including two different films that deal with women's health issues in Ethiopia: Child Brides by SafeHands for Mothers and A Walk to Beautiful by Engel Entertainment.

I also recently came across the film project, Not Yet Rain by Ipas, which also deals with women's health in Ethiopia and I thought I would highlight these excellent films and the message they are delivering.

Child Brides opens with the marriage ceremony of Wube-Enat who is 10 years old to Abebe, who is 14. Child marriages are illegal in Ethiopia (where the legal age is 18) but according to SafeHands for Mothers, 14% of girls are married by age 10 and 39% by age 14. The majority of child brides will have sex before their first menstruation and often bare children at extremely early ages. Young girls who have children at such an age often suffer from obstetric fistulas (more on that below), which can lead to rejection by her husband and to be ostracized by the community. She also no longer attends school, another crucial element for sustainable development.





In order to get this video out to much of Ethiopia's rural population (77 million Ethiopians live in the rural areas), SafeHands for Mothers partnered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. How did they play the DVDs? With portable solar powered DVD player backpacks of course! SafeHands teamed up with Dulas, Ltd., which designed the technology to bring the film directly to the communities.

A Walk to Beautiful deals with the results of complications from child-birth, obstetric fistulas (and, in fact, sexual violence can cause these as well). Single and double obstetric fistulas are what the World Health Organization describes as the result of neglected child birth. These fistula, a small hole between the rectum and/or bladder and vagina is the result of prolonged, obstructed labor. The resulting fistulas cause uncontrollable leakage of urine and fesses and these women are often shunned by their husbands and their communities. Over two million women world wide suffer from fistula and another 100,000 cases are added each year. A Walk to Beautiful follows five women and their journey to re-enter their society.



Finally, Not Yet Rain follows the plight of women and the access to safe abortions in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has one of the most progressive abortion laws in all of Africa but despite this, women still face substantial obstacles in receiving safe abortions. Abortion is never ideal. But neither is rape, death, disease, poverty or back-street abortions. Not Yet Rain aims to inform and educate women and the community on what practices are safe and which can cause irreparable damage in many cases.




One of my favorite aspects about all three of these films is their commitment to bringing women's rights to the forefront of the discussion in development. It is easy to feel cynical that there is just too much to do and so little progress is ever made. However, these films not only give a voice to women but a sample of the faces of the hundreds of physicians, community health workers and volunteers who are working to give women the opportunity to make their own choices in their lives.

The World is Your Stage

Eight years after its first attempt to host a global summit on racism, the U.N. is not finding much luck the second time around (maybe third time will be the charm?). Everyone's favorite, furry leader, Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, decided to use his thirty minute speech to call Israel a racist nation, which was followed by a mass walk-out of about by the 30 diplomats, including 23 E.U. member nations who are in attendance (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland have boycotted the conference altogether along with the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand who describe it as a forum that is tainted with bad blood).

Certainly, Israel has not played fair in its occupation of some of the Palestinian territories, complete with some pretty atrocious behavior in its recent war in Gaza but then again, many Arab nations haven't been too active when it comes to atrocities committed by fellow leaders. Since the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrent for Sudanese president Oman Al Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Israel's neighbors have acted as if there wasn't any sort of genocide happening in the region. In March, at the Arab Summit in Qatar, which followed the issuing of the ICC's warrant, not one of the attendees condemned Bashir and the deaths of over 300,000 in Darfur, rather supported him.

Two wrongs never make a right. Israel must answer for the illegal deaths of hundreds of innocent Palestinians but until Iran takes the lead to help bring Bashir to justice, it is no less guilty for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Darfuris than the rest of the world, which is idelly standing by.

**Photo by Erin Cunningham**

A: One boulder at a time

Today, Afghan President Hamid Karzai reversed recent measures that would have effectively allowed for legalized marital rapes in Shiite marriages. A measure that should never have been included in the recent law but an important step worth noting. Earlier in the week, women in Afghanistan risked their lives to protest the law and Karzai also received substantial backlash from much of the global community for allowing such archaic and disgraceful practices to continue against Afghanistan's minority women.