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Texas' High Teen Pregnancy Rates

Jill at Feministe points out that Texas—which has, over the years, slashed funding for family planning and teaches abstinence—has the highest teen birthrate in the country, along with a very high rate of unintended pregnancies. According to the Houston Chronicle, 1.5 million women are "without help in avoiding unplanned pregnancies," and that was before the latest round of funding cuts and clinic closings.

Meanwhile, Bitch | Lab has a response very much worth reading, noting that a lack of family planning resources may lead to unintended pregnancies across the board, but it isn't the only factor leading to high teen pregnancy rates: "It’s not always lack of information. It’s lack of desire to want to avoid pregnancy. And it’s sometimes about a desire to want to get pregnant." Among other things, she notes that teen pregnancy is culture specific—Latina teen mothers in particular are much less likely to say that their pregnancy was "unintended" than white and African-American teen mothers, according to various studies. I don't really have a larger point here, I just thought both posts were interesting.

Posted by Bradford Plumer on 04/05/06 at 1:33 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg this | de.licio.us