By Laura Burns
The News:
Last month Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential nominee, announced her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is 5 months pregnant.
Behind the News:
Bristol Palin is one of many young women whose pregnancies have brought the issue of teen motherhood to the forefront of national media attention. The film “Juno,” about a witty 16-year-old who decides to give her baby up for adoption, and Britney Spears’ 17-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, who recently gave birth to a baby girl, have also been subjects of the recent media focus on teen pregnancy.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the birthrate among those between the ages of 15 and 19 in Illinois was slightly lower—at 39 births per 1,000 females—than the national rate of 41 births per 1,000 females in 2005, the latest year for which the data are available. Hispanics had the highest rate in the state with 80 per 1,000 in this age group, followed closely by African Americans with 72. White teenagers had a significantly lower birth rate at 20 per 1,000 females.
Pam Sutherland, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said the whole reality of teen pregnancy is not always presented in the media. “On national television, young people see sexual activity glamorized with no consequences,” she said. “Teens see all kinds of things about having sex and about sexuality but not about responsible sexuality.”
According to the CDC’s 2007 survey of “Youth Risk Behavior,” more than half of the high school seniors in Illinois reported having had sex during the three months prior to the survey.
Lynne Johnson, director of advocacy for the Chicago Foundation for Women, said Illinois schools should provide “comprehensive sexual health” education to all students. “To really do something about teen pregnancy, we have to reconstruct sexual health education for young people,” she said. “Comprehensive sexual education for young people equips them with decision-making skills for a lifetime to be able to make healthy decisions about their sexual activity.”
In a study published in the April 2008 Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers found, “Adolescents who received comprehensive sex education were significantly less likely to report teen pregnancy than those who received no formal sex education, whereas there was no significant effect of abstinence-only education.”
But in Illinois, the sex education curriculum is determined by the local school districts, which decide if they teach sexual education and whether to teach comprehensive or abstinence-only sex education.
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