Granting Teens Some Help $$$

Recently, (Thursday September 10, 2010 to be exact) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that $155 million in teen pregnancy prevention grants are being awarded to states, non-profit organizations, school districts, universities, and others. These grants will support the replication of teen pregnancy prevention programs that have been shown to be effective through rigorous research as well as the testing of new, innovative approaches to combating teen pregnancy.

“This investment will help bring evidence-based initiatives to more communities across the country while also testing new approaches so we can expand our toolkit of effective interventions." says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. I think this will be help our country deal with the teen pregnancy epidemic in an educational and positive way. There is no way this program can hurt and I hope teens truly benefit from these new opportunities and start making wiser decisions on their own. 

$100 million comes from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program.

$55 million comes from the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP)

-Kelsey P.

"Bills, bills, bills"

There is a new bill trying to be passed called "heartbeat bill". It stipulates that women cannot get an abortion if a heartbeat of the fetus can be detected. The only exception to the law is if the abortion is done in a medical emergency. The article "Abortions battles spring up nationwide as states test the limits of Roe v. Wade" explains how the bill came to be and states the bill does not seem likely to pass, however that won't stop anti-abortionists from trying.

I believe that if this bill would pass, there will be few abortions because a fetus' heart beats 4 weeks after conception. Most women do not know they are even pregnant at that time unless they were trying to conceive and if they were trying to conceive then they would not need to utilize an abortion in the first place. I disagree with this bill and agree that it likely will not pass.

Other states meanwhile are trying to pass bills, like Texas that requires women to get a sonogram before they get an abortion. I think that this is terrible because it will further the guilt some people feel towards abortion and then you will have an increase in unwanted children being born. South Dakota is trying to pass a bill that says women have to receive a consultation 72 hours before the abortion. A consultation for what? To talk them out of it? To give them resources for counseling? This has some pros and cons.

Kristen, M

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20044823-503544.html

Young People Have Sex

So, I found this video, on my grandmother's Facebook page of all places: We Have Sex. It's a video of Methodist college students, basically, creating  PSA in favor of standing with Planned Parenthood and standing up for Title X funding from the US government. After watching this video, I began to think about how relevant it was in relation to our 16&Pregnant class. Often times, more times than not, the topic of teenagers having sex is a bit of a taboo subject matter. Older generations don't like to think that teenagers have sex, but they do. Sometimes teens have sex because it feels good, because they love someone, or because they want to feel loved.

The education of teenagers as sexual beings is extremely important to the progress of their emotional and physical development. When education programs shift toward an abistance only teaching method and students have Bristol Palin to look up to as a role model, the unanswered questions and overall ignorance toward teen's sexuality could be dangerously detrimental. If funding for Title X and ogranizations like Planned Parenthood are cut, students with abstinence-only education are left to fend for themselves in a world they are not equipped to handle properly.

Young people have sex. It's essential that we educate and provide options to keep them safe, healthy, and happy.

-Andrea W.

What are the consequences of choosing to keep a child?

If teen pregnancy could be reduced or eliminated by better education or social environment, should it?  Are there any problems innate in becoming pregnant at a young age, or are all of the problems caused by society's views on teen pregnancy?

There are many social, economical, and personal consequences of becoming pregnant as a teenager.  Teen mothers face many problems ranging from criticism by peers and family, economic troubles, and even health risks for both the baby and themselves.  

A study by authors at the CDC (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1477817/pdf/pubhealthrep00178-0074.pdf) set out to see if there is a correlation between infant death and the age of the mother.

Two and a half million births were included in the study, and only mothers between the ages of 10 and 29 years old.  Their is a strong correlation between infant death and low birth weight.  But the question remains: is low birth weight inherent to babies of young mothers, or are environmental factors mostly to blame?

The authors of the study elaborated on adjustments of the data to include socio-economic status.  With these adjustments, the mortality rates of teen mothers became significantly closer to those who gave birth in their twenties.  Furthermore, by counting for the lack of prenatal care, the authors believe that their is no, or significantly less, increased risk to babies born to teenage mothers.  They believe that all or most of the problems caused by teen pregnancies result from bad pre-natal care and poor economic status.

This study was conducted many years ago, do you think that infant mortality for infants born to teenage mothers has improved with better access to prenatal care?  Or have we failed as a society to give teen mothers access to such needed care?


-Taylor Z.