Turns out the media-generated hysteria about Teh Teen Sex Plague is like so much media-generated hysteria: not based on and contradicted by actual data.
So why the fuss?
The latest rise in teenage pregnancy rates is cause for concern. But it very likely reflects changing patterns in contraceptive use rather than a major change in sexual behavior. The reality is that the rate of teenage childbearing has fallen steeply since the late 1950s. The declines aren’t explained by the increasing availability of abortions: teenage abortion rates have also dropped.
“There is a group of kids who engage in sexual behavior, but it’s not really significantly different than previous generations,” said Maria Kefalas, an associate professor of sociology at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and co-author of “Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage” (University of California Press, 2005). “This creeping up of teen pregnancy is not because so many more kids are having sex, but most likely because more kids aren’t using contraception.”
Em-phass-is mine.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Rojo // Jan 28, 2009 at 9:40 am
Well, as you know, I have few nice things to say about American liberalism, but at least they seem to have shucked (most) of the moral sexual panic that so exercises the American right nowadays.
I mean really, do any of these yahoos even remember being a teen? Of course a significant number of teens are going to be having sex no matter how many “promise rings” daddy makes ‘em wear!
I have to agree with liberals (Brrrrrrr! How I hate saying that!) when they say that the right’s attempt to control sexual behavior is all about attempting to keep women in a subordinate positions. It’s not that they think that teens really will avoid sexual behavior, it’s that females not reserving their sexual behaviors within prescribed subordinate relationships should be punished, and that’s why they oppose contraception.
Of course, I still smell a whiff of moral sexual panic among the libs when it comes to the poor, but I’ll be nice for now.
2 Kevin Moore // Jan 28, 2009 at 10:12 am
Agreeing with liberals about problems isn’t difficult; it’s the solutions that cause a rift.
For me, anyway.
And yeah! The moral sexual panic – I think I blogged about that last month: http://mooretoons.com/2008/12/15/zero-shame-game/
Very much a case in point of liberal discomfort with poor people’s breeding.
3 Rojo // Jan 28, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I just re-read it and that was a good post. Do you know much about the eugenicist ideas of Margaret Sanger?
I think I have to disagree that it’s easy to agree with liberals about problems. I think that it’s easy to agree about the symptoms of problems (too many poor people, too many people locked in prison, too much violence, etc.), but not easy to agree about what the problem is.
But perhaps we’re just saying them same thing in a different way.
Liberals definitely get grumpy with me when I start criticizing imperialism, capitalism, and statism (especially Obama’s imperialism, capitalism, and statism!), however, and those are three of the most significant problems in my view.
Leave a Comment