Posted on 11/07/2007 7:34:23 PM PST by bullypulpit
It is a national trend, one that doesn’t seem to be abating, despite attempts at education, teaching abstinence, birth control, or even abortion. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, of the 1,626 live births in Tom Green County in 2003, 636, or 39.2 percent, were to unwed mothers. That is five percent over the State of Texas average of 34.2 percent. Eighty-four teenagers giving birth are included in that number, and 308 of the mothers, or 19 percent, had late or no prenatal care. The problem does not appear to be abating. The 2006-2007 school year saw 100 teenagers pregnant in San Angelo ISD schools, up from 65 the year prior. Five of the girls were in 7th and 8th grade!
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At our request, Ashley called the San Angelo office of Planned Parenthood of West Texas to inquire about their abortion service, as if she was pregnant again. “They told me that it’s price starts at $470. But I screwed up my dates, and they calculated that I was in my second trimester. The abortion would cost me $595 then,” Ashley said. “But the lady said that they had someone in training and if I go this weekend, I can get the $470 price,” she continued. “It was like they were trying to sell me a used car!”
(Excerpt) Read more at sanangelolive.com ...
People always assume that young girls who have children don’t want to have children. This is not true, of course. Many of them want to have children, and get pregnant intentionally.
5.56mm
“It is a national trend, one that doesn’t seem to be abating, despite attempts at education, teaching abstinence, birth control, or even abortion.”
Plain old fear did it in my day. (I’m old)
Fear of parents,neighbors,friends,teachers,everyone.
“It is a national trend, one that doesn’t seem to be abating, despite attempts at education, teaching abstinence, birth control, or even abortion.”
“Plain old fear did it in my day. (I’m old)
Fear of parents,neighbors,friends,teachers,everyone.”
Not for everyone- my mother- in- law was very pregrant with her first when she married- 45 years ago. Her parents did NOT want her to get married, she was only 18 and they wanted her to go to college instead.
If she's "too young" for pregnancy, she's also too young for sex!
...let’s see the demographic breakdown...
“Not for everyone-”
That is true as my grandmother back in the early 1900s was pregnant when she got married. Of course nobody ever talked about it. Didn’t mean I wanted to follow that path. A small amount of fear was good for most in my day.
Rumor (I found out later that day) had it that she was PG (our slang for pregnant ... we giggled at the thought ... the use of the letters).
Never saw her again ... this was in ... um ... '60? .. '61? .. '62?
...let’s see the demographic breakdown...”
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Same as San Antonio....illegals having anchor babies.
Yeah, the nation of Mexico. If you look at it from that angle the "national" trend is downward.
Yes, this was how it worked back then because of the STIGMA of pregnancy outside of marriage and the lack of economic assistance available to unwed mothers. Current efforts to reduce teen pregnancy don't work because there are no longer any social costs (stigma) attached to the behavior and government has made it economically feasible through Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, WIC, etc. for irresponsible teens to actually parent their babies. Back in the 60's the choices were marriage (for the older ones), adoption through private agencies (remember homes for unwed mothers) in which the medical costs of pregnancy were paid for by adoptive parents, or keeping the baby and living with the mother's parents.
All of those 60's options were better for society, the teenage unwed mother, and most importantly the child. What we have accomplished today, mostly through government programs and the removal of the social stigma against unwed parenting, is to financially enable irresponsible girls to parent their out of wedlock babies resulting in increasing rates of child abuse and skyrocketing numbers of kids being removed from these irresponsible mothers at ages 3, 4, 5 and being placed in a poorly functioning foster care system. It has been a true public policy disaster the negative consequences of which are incalculable, both for the inviduals personally affected and society at large.
What is needed is for government to remove itself from the picture entirely which will restore the normal and necessary economic consequences and incentives for teenage girls to place their babies for adoption (or get married if feasible) rather than parenting these children themselves. Restoring the stigma attached to unwed teenage parenting will also help. For example, no more day care centers in high schools! Once one has chosen to have a baby and to parent that child then one has chosen to become an adult with all the responsibilities that entails and they no longer belong in public high schools. Local community colleges are the appropriate educational setting for these adult parents.
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