The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that the nation’s teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, increasing 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.

The teen birth rate had been declining since a peak in 1991, although the drop had been slowing in recent years, according to an Associated Press article. Some key sexually transmitted disease rates have also been rising.

Some experts attributed the increase in teen birth rates in abstinence-only education.

“Congress needs to stop knee-jerk approving abstinence-only funding when it’s clear it’s not working,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, who is pushing for more comprehensive sex education.

People may assume decreased condom use and increased sexual activity account for higher teen birth rates, according to the article. But some data has shown that condom use among teens has actually increased.

Contraceptive-focused sex education is still common, and the new teen birth numbers reflect it’s failing, argued Moira Gaul of the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.

The full report is available at the CDC’s Web site. The agency also released a press release with key findings from the research.

A task force has recommended that Denver high schools offer birth control, according to the Los Angeles Times. The school board has not formally considered the recommendation, but the proposal has stirred the debate about whether schools should provide contraception and, if so, whether parental consent should be required.

Denver’s teen birth rate is “more than double the statewide rate of 24.3 births per 1,000 girls age 15 to 17, and Denver school officials are considering a proposal to dispense contraceptives in its six high-school-based health clinics, which serve the district’s most impoverished students,” according to the article.

Opponents say the easy availability would encourage youngsters to have sex.

Proponents counter that sexually active teens should have as much access to birth control as possible.

Recently, a Maine school decided to offer birth control to middle schoolers, leading to controversy and widespread publicity. But most of the country’s school-based health clinics do not dispense contraceptives, according to a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care quoted in the L.A. Times article.

I conducted an audio interview this week with Bill Albert, the deputy director with the Washington-based The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. This is particularly timely because the organization just released a study, “Emerging Answers 2007,” that explores which sex education programs are most effective for preventing teen pregnancy, among other things. You can also view my previous, related post, about the study’s findings.

Listen: Teen pregnancy audio interview

I’ve also posted a full transcript of the interview, which includes additional questions that didn’t make it into the edited audio file.

“Emerging Answers 2007,” a study released this week by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, found that abstinence-only education is unproven for stopping teen sex, while programs that both discuss contraceptives and urge teens to wait have better track records, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Many studies have shown that combining the abstinence message with explicit discussions of birth control “is a realistic, effective approach that does not appear to confuse young people,” Dr. Kirby [a researcher for the study] said in a report for a nonpartisan group that tries to reduce teen pregnancies.

In his review, Dr. Kirby said, “Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavioral effects,” such as delaying the start of sexual activity and increasing use of condoms or other birth control.

But not everyone agrees. According to the article, Kyleen Wright of Mansfield, president of the Irving-based Texans for Life Coalition, said that contraception instruction was tried in the schools in the 1980s and didn’t work.

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Despite the overall slowing of teen birth rates in the U.S., Texas has made less headway and leads the nation in teen pregnancy rates, according to a Dallas Morning News article.

The article reports that the non-profit group, Child Trends, conferred another No. 1 ranking on Texas.

In the latest statistics available, 24 percent of the state’s teen births in 2004 were not the girl’s first delivery.

“That astounded me,” said Kathryn Allen, senior vice president for community relations at Planned Parenthood of North Texas. “I mean, what are we doing wrong?”

The article says experts are questioning the Texas policy of denying contraceptives without parental consent wherever possible and pushing an abstinence-only sex education program in public schools.

The article compares Texas with California, both of which share fast-growing immigrant populations who are “especially at risk of teen childbearing.”   California schools also teach abstinence, but unlike Texas schools, also explain contraception.

While the teen birth rate in Texas dropped by 19 percent from 1991 to 2004, California’s rate dropped by 47 percent in the same period.  The nationwide rate dipped by one-third. 

You can view some readers’ reactions.  You can also view the press release and research brief (”Repeat Teen Childbearing:  Differences Across States and By Race and Ethnicity”) by Child Trends that describes the organization’s findings.

Several groups released statements regarding Democrats’ approval of a $28 million increase requested by President Bush for abstinence-only-until-marriage-programs. The Senate passed the bill after removing amendments relating to abstinence education and stem cell research, according to a Kaiser Network post. Read my related post for background.

Here are various organizations’ and bloggers’ reactions to the funding:

• Advocates for Youth - “Democrats Cave on Sex Education - Again“
• Sex in the Public Square blog post (July)
  

According to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted in late October, 51 percent of respondents said sex education and birth control were better for reducing teen pregnancies, slightly outnumbering the 46 percent who prefer morality and abstinence.

Younger people were likelier to consider sex education and birth control the better way to limit teenage pregnancies, as were 64 percent of minorities and 47 percent of whites. Nearly seven in 10 white evangelicals opted for abstinence, along with about half of Catholics and Protestants.

Other key findings:

• 67 percent of respondents support providing birth control to students at schools while 62 percent said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.
• Most supporters of providing birth control to students favor parental consent.
• Minorities, older and lower-earning people were likeliest to prefer requiring parental consent, while those favoring no restriction tended to be younger and from cities or suburbs. People who wanted schools to provide no birth control at all were likelier to be white and higher-income earners.
• 49 percent of respondents say providing teens with birth control would not encourage sexual intercourse and a virtually identical 46 percent said it would.
• Though men and women have similar views about whether to provide contraceptives to students, women are likelier than men to think it will not encourage sexual intercourse, 55 percent to 43 percent.

What do you think of the survey results? Do you think they’re representative of the general population?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution posted an editorial titled, “Are schools encouraging students to have sex?” with two opposing sides.

The debate was spurred by the recent decision by a Maine middle school’s decision to offer contraceptives to students.

“Students have enough internal pressure toward sex; they need authority figures to help them fight it, not help them give into it!” wrote columnist Shaunti Feldhah.

The counterpoint by columnist Andrea Cornell Sarvady included the following:

Pregnant teens? No one wants that. Yet I doubt the solution lies with people like Pam Stenzel, a Bush appointee to the Department of Health and Human Service’s task force for abstinence education guidelines. Here’s Pam, when she thinks she’s only among “friends,” addressing the effectiveness of an abstinence-only curriculum at a religious convention: “I don’t care if it works, because at the end of the day… I’m answering to God.”

Who do you agree with? Is providing contraceptives legitimizing sex for minors and even pushing them to have sex at an earlier age?

Several news stories this week highlighted the issue of whether middle schoolers should have access to birth control and sex education. CNN reports that a middle school in Maine approved plans to offer access to birth control at its health center, perhaps prompted by an “outbreak of pregnancies among middle school girls.”

Portland’s three middle schools reported 17 pregnancies during the last four years, not counting miscarriages or terminated pregnancies that weren’t reported to the school nurse.

King Middle School will become the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available, including birth control pills and patches. Condoms have been available at King’s health center since 2000.

While supporters said kids need better access to birth control, some opponents cited religious and health objections.

“We are dealing with children,” said Diane Miller, a former school nurse said. “I am just horrified at the suggestion.”

Another opponent, Peter Doyle, said he felt the proposal violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.

The Kaiser Network published a good overview of this topic, as well as links to additional print and broadcast coverage of this. The Huffington Post offers blog discussions of this.

On a related note, even if schools aren’t willing to go so far as King Middle School and offer birth control, some schools don’t even want to offer basic sex education. The Southeast Missourian wrote this week that middle school students being taught sex education by high schoolers through a program called “Postponing Sexual Involvement” reported a lack of sex education up to this point.

When Hileman asked how many students had enough information about sex, no one raised their hand. One student suggested the Internet as a source of information.

The leaders weren’t surprised by the lack of information; many local schools, especially at the junior high level, actively avoid sex education and refuse to discuss contraception.

Schools get away with not discussing the issue at all because “that’s a real hard thing to monitor,” according to Steve Williams, a health consultant for the state’s department of education.