Arizona has an especially high teen-pregnancy rate. Arizona also promotes abstinence-only education in its public schools.
Arizona is known for a lot of things. The Grand Canyon, our universities, beautiful sunsets.
And, oh yeah, our truly awful teen pregnancy rate.
Ranked against the other 49 states, Arizona’s teen-pregnancy rate has been in the top 5 for years. And while you probably won’t see that fact emblazoned on a license plate anytime soon, teen pregnancy still has a significant impact on Arizona residents.
Abstinence-only education teaches that the only way to prevent pregnancy and STIs is to abstain from sex, which is true. It is also not very helpful to the 70 percent of teenagers who have had intercourse by age 19.
As of 2009, Arizona had the fifth highest teen birth rate in the United States. This trend is on the rise — as of 2006 the rate had increased by 6.5 percent. In 2009, 12,537 teenagers became pregnant. Of those pregnancies, 10,952 resulted in live births. While the majority of those women were either 18 or 19, that’s still about 3,500 girls under the age of 17 giving birth, a number that varies every year but generally stays in the 4000s.
Teen mothers are much more likely to drop out of high school and to skip college entirely. They struggle more financially and emotionally. Not to mention the fact that preventing teen pregnancies in Arizona could save the state $180 million a year.
Who else joins us at the top of the list? New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. What do we all have in common? Beautiful sunsets and abstinence-only education. Since I’m pretty sure the sunsets aren’t to blame, let’s talk about sex (education).
Abstinence-only education teaches that the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and STIs is to abstain from sex, which is true. It is also not very helpful to the 70 percent of teenagers who have had intercourse by age 19.
Abstinence-only education typically does not provide information on birth control or safe-sex practices. In fact, studies have shown that abstinence programs spread false information (e.g., touching another person’s genitals leads to pregnancy, half of gay men in the United States have AIDS) and shame.
The traditional thinking has been that teaching teenagers about sex will cause them to have sex. You know, like how wearing a raincoat causes it to rain? But studies actually show that sex education has no impact on teenage rates of sexual activity. Differences in education do, however, impact whether or not teens use protection. Teens who receive comprehensive sex education are 60 percent less likely to become pregnant than teens who received no education. Teens who receive abstinence-only education are just as likely to become pregnant as teens who receive no education at all.
We cheat our teens when we deny them access to accurate information about their bodies. The federal government spends billions of dollars every year on abstinence education, despite the overwhelming evidence that these programs aren’t just unhelpful to teens, they’re harmful.
OK, I’m getting off my soapbox now. But if you’re as annoyed as I am, you can read more here. Or check out “The Purity Myth” by Jessica Valenti.
Madelaine Archie wrote for Border Health Care, a blog focusing on health-care issues in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
No offense, but looking at the same website that you pulled the $9 billion figure from for the cost of a teen pregnancy, it discusses a decrease in teen pregnancy. i definitely stand with PP but how do you explain this? It’s from the same website, just scroll down.
Teen Pregnancy on the Decline in AZ
January 19th, 2011
Our Bureau of Public Health Statistics just released a new 10-year trend report on Teen Pregnancy in Arizona, 1999-2009. Some of the key findings are
Teen pregnancy rates dropped 34% in AZ from 1999 to 2009.
There were a total of 12,537 pregnancies to teens younger than 19 in 2009, which was the fewest number reported during this ten year period.
The decline in rates was especially steep for younger teens (15 – 17 year olds). Rates among these younger teens dropped by nearly 45% in the past decade (from 51.5 per 1,000 in 1999 to 28.5 in 2009).
From 2007 to 2009, the number of teen pregnancies declined steeply for Asians (-23%), and Latinas (-19%).
Among Hispanic females 19 years old or younger the number of births declined by an unprecedented 18.5%, and the number of pregnancies declined by 19%. There is a reason to believe that there were fewer births (and pregnancies) among Hispanics of all ages, as well as teenagers, because there were fewer Hispanic or Latino residents in Arizona in 2009 than there were in 2007.
A drop in teen-pregnancy rates is always welcome, but fluctuations over the years are to be expected. The fact remains that Arizona still has a sky-high teen-pregnancy rate, so if it goes from “really really high” to just “really high” we can’t rest on our laurels — we have to do better.
The $9 billion figure takes into account the cost of teenage pregnancy nationwide — I have contacted the author of this article to see if we can edit this piece to reflect more accurately the cost of teenage pregnancy to just the state of Arizona. Stay tuned!