Teen Pregnacy, Sex, Abortion, Statistics

[Dayle Record]

My teen sent me these statistics regarding teen pregnancy, sex, abortion, after seeing a documentary film at Sundance, regarding one girls attempts to get sex ed at her High School, in Lubbock, Texas. There they have some practice where girls "marry their parents", and promise to not have sex, until after marriage. Texas has the number two rate of teen pregnancy after California, and the legal age of consent there is 13. The practice of the Promise, makes liars and mothers out of young women, where sex ed and birth control, would let them finish their education.

There are several forces at play, here besides the wishing for a more moral society, that also needs a high birthrate to accommodate economic plans, since no plan has ever been yet devised for decent stasis, and in fact decrease in population.

Here are the statistics, and interestingly Holland has the lowest abortion rates. Look at the rate of sexual activity vs birth rate in societies where there is sex ed.

Country abortion rates
Rate per 1,000

United States
21.3

Australia
22.2

Sweden
18.7

Denmark
16.5

Canada
16.4

England & Wales
15.6

Germany
7.6

Holland
6.5
<http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922117.html>

Teen pregnancy ratesPregnancy and Childbearing


Teenage birth rate per 1,000 births
Sweden — 7
France — 9
Canada — 20
Great Britain — 31
United States — 49


Percentage of women aged 20-24 who had a child before age 20
Sweden — 4%
France — 6%
Canada — 11%
Great Britain — 11%
United States — 22%


Sexual Activity

Percentage of women aged 20-24 who had first intercourse before age 20
Sweden — 86%
France — 83%
Canada — 75%
Great Britain — 85%
United States — 81%


Percentage of women who began having “sex” before age 15


Sweden — 12%
France — 7%
Canada — 9%
Great Britain — 4%
United States — 14%


Percentage of sexually active women aged 18-19 who were sexually active in
the past year and had 2 or more sexual partners in that time period
(*measures not exactly comparable)
Sweden — 43%
France — 13%
Canada — 24%
Great Britain* — 30%
United States — 49%


(*measures were for 16-19 year olds in Great Britain)

Contraceptive Use

Percentage of adolescent women who did not use any method of birth control
at first intercourse*
Sweden — 22%
France — 11%
Great Britain — 21%
United States — 25%


(*statistics for Canada not available)

Percentage of adolescent women who did not use any method of birth control
at most recent intercourse*
Sweden — 7%
France — 12%
Great Britain — 4%
United States — 20%

<http://www.siecus.org/pubs/shop/volume6/shpv60043.html>

The one good thing I read about the teen birth rate in the US, is that 2/3 of the teens having children are 18-19 year olds, rather than the very young ones. Also the birthrates were lower in countries that take better care of Moms and children. Maybe that caring paid off in having the Teenagers well educated in matters of their own survival, rather than creating generations of people who grow up on state funds.

We have to figure out an economic system that will allow for population control, and still thrive, rather than basing our success on ever increasing numbers.

 

[hitssquad]

The ages of consent in California and Texas

Texas has the number two rate of teen pregnancy after California, and the legal age of consent there is 13.

The age of consent in California is 18 and the age of consent in Texas is 17. (Additionally, homosexual sex is illegal in Texas.)
http://www.ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm

Though the Texas statute § 21.11. INDECENCY WITH A CHILD says:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/PE/content/htm/pe.005.00.000021.00.htm#21.11.00

--
(b) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this
section that the actor

• (1) was not more than three years older than the victim
  and of the opposite sex;

--


Maybe that means the age of consent in Texas under those circumstances is zero.

 

[Dayle Record]

§ 2.102. PARENTAL CONSENT FOR UNDERAGE
APPLICANT. (a) If an applicant is 14 years of age or older but
under 18 years of age, the county clerk shall issue the license if
parental consent is given as provided by this section.
(b) Parental consent must be evidenced by a written
declaration on a form supplied by the county clerk in which the
person consents to the marriage and swears that the person is a
parent (if there is no judicially designated managing conservator
or guardian of the applicant's person) or a judicially designated
managing conservator or guardian (whether an individual,
authorized agency, or court) of the applicant's person.
*******************************************************************
I was a year off about Texas. Parents can consent to teen marriage of a fourteen year old child.

 

[hitssquad]

Age of consent vs age of consent to marry

I was a year off about Texas. Parents can consent to teen marriage of a fourteen year old child.

Age of consent is usually not used to mean age of consent to marry. And the latter is at least as low as 14 in not just Texas, but seven US states including your own, Utah. Massachusetts and Kansas allow 12-year-old females to marry.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/Table_Marriage.htm



At the beginning of this thread, you wrote:

Texas has the number two rate of teen pregnancy after California, and the legal age of consent there is 13.

Did you mean to imply that the majority of under-18 pregnancies in Texas might be produced within wedlock?

 

[Dayle Record]

Marriage age with parental consent went up to 16 in Utah, a few years ago.

 

[arildno]

It would have been more fair to compare US with comparable levels of ignorance and POVERTY than European countries.

I'm positive that if you look at that portion of the US population that enjoys standard European level of material comfort (or better), then the percentages would have been roughly equal.

 

[Pengwuino]

Percentage of women who began having “sex” before age 15

What do they mean by "sex"? sounds like a seinfeld episode in the making.

 

[arildno]

"sex"? Is that use of cigars and suchlike?

 

[munky99999]

well I am thinking. Look back 2000 years ago. average age was like 50 or less. Women were normal to have kids when they were teenagers. So what exactly is wrong with this? well we have longer lives. that the child doesn't have a functioning family. the child will grow up poor(im pretty sure this is generally true) etc.

so basically ok its bad for women to have kids as teenagers in this society.
We won't be stopping the kids from having sex.

So what do we do? Well one might be trying mandatory sex ed for these teenagers.
-we could make all basic contraceptive free to teens.
-we could make singlemoms taboo.(my favourite)
-large consequences for teenage moms(mandatory adoption/foster parents)
-make childsupport only work for people who have married(that way women will think twice and only have sex until after marriage)[my least favourite]

 

[loseyourname]

Dayle, you said in your first post that these high teen birthrates correlate somehow with a lack of sex education, but you didn't post any statistics on the availability of sex education. I can't speak for all of California, but every school I knew of in the LA area had it by 9th grade, even the Catholic school I went to (though it was mostly geared toward scaring us away from sex by showing us horror photos of STDs and overstating the failure rates of condoms).

Not that it means anything statistically, but my sister had sex ed, used contraception, and still became a teen parent. She missed one pill; I guess some people just have no luck.

 

[munky99999]

even the Catholic school I went to (though it was mostly geared toward scaring us away from sex by showing us horror photos of STDs and overstating the failure rates of condoms).

ya i found this funny in my catholic school. They were constantly saying how condoms can break, or have pores that leak stds. so i bring in a study which says clearly that condoms fail only about 0.001% of the time. if the condom is taken care of. Which the study says that the probability is about the same as the chance of getting hit by a car.

Though i hate kids. and that much of a chance is to much for me. So I have alternatives to assure.

One being Spermicide.
Champaigne
Hot Tub
Mandrake tea.

Muhahahaha.

 

[Dayle Record]

In Salt Lake City high school health ed, the teacher discussed methods of birth control, then advocated abstention from sex, until marriage. Students have to have a parental permission slip to receive sex or reproductive education in Utah.

According to one young woman that attended College in Price Utah, girls came to her dorm on a continuing basis to receive a rudimentary description of their reproductive functions. There were college age women who didn't know why they menstruated. There were a great number of these young women.

 

[Oyéah]

I think the figures for the success of abstention programs, are false. I think the reality is that birth control information, and even birth control means can be found and purchased off the internet. I think this is the resource that teens are using to keep their birthrate down, not abstention.

 

[moose]

More sex ed will do nothing.

Better parents would do something.