Monday, April 9, 2007
News Ga. teens pop out the babies
Posted by Alyssa Abkowitz on Mon, Apr 9, 2007 at 8:34 PM
The Athens Banner-Herald reported today that one in three girls in several counties in northeast Georgia will have a baby before she's 20 years old, according to numbers complied by the Northeast Health District. What's more, if the female is African-American, she has a 38 percent chance of giving birth before she's out of her teens.
These numbers are alarming, but not completely surprising considering the type of sex ed -- or rather, lack thereof -- adolescents receive in Georgia. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive research organization in New York, Georgia only is required to teach abstinence as a preventative measure for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
So what's a girl to do if things get too hot and heavy and she doesn't know about back-up plans such as condoms or birth-control pills?
Well, pop out a kid, it seems. Or endure a mandated 24-hour waiting period and a lecture about government benefits on childbirth before undergoing an abortion, courtesy of state lawmakers. And, if all goes according to some lawmakers' plans, the opportunity to view a sonogram before the abortion will also be part of that process.
And we're really wondering why our teen pregnancy rates are so high?
Comments (1)
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You mean the same sex education that worked pretty well for my generation and my parents? I'm only 40 BTW. Although GA is only required to teach abstinence, I am pretty certain that most schools teach more...if they don't get it at school they get it on TV, the web, CL and numerous other sources. BTW, they do know what causes babies, so I have to ask about personal responsibility. So what's a girl to do? How about .. say no!!! Ahh, but that would assume that they are responsible for their own actions. We aslo know that most of these young mothers were born to young mothers. Maybe Momma should be giving some advice learned from experience. I am confused by your last sentence... do you mean to imply that this new policy is somehow causative of the high birth rates which precede it by 20+ years?
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