I have thought for a while that the cute little sassy kid movies like Juno and promoting Palin's daughter on all the magazine covers promote teen pregnancy.

However, this data proceeds them.  Teen pregnancies were already on the rise.  Abortions rates were up too, so there are just more teen pregnancies.  So why?

Teens hook up more now.  Sex between friends, but is that it??

Rise in teen pregnancies spurs debate

Rate jumps for first time in decade, raising alarm among experts

By Rob Stein

updated 6:10 a.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 26, 2010

WASHINGTON - The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering, according to a report released Tuesday.

The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 —the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation's leading reproductive-health think tank.

Teen pregnancy has long been one of the most pressing social issues and has triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35071837/ns/health-more_health_news/

Let me check Townhall or Fox News to find the connection to Obama. I'm sure somehow someone like this crazy Beck guy has the scoop on this.

They'll never say abstinence only doesn't work.  That's for sure. It will have to be something else.  They could blame the rise in illegal immigrants. 

Another factor is if pregnancies are up, stds are up.  More unprotected sex.  Aids.  Maybe sex as a teenager is a wrong decision.  The question is, is it worth the death penalty.  The kids have to learn the dangers of unprotected sex.  Strict morals and teaching abstinence only obviously don't work.  The kids will still have sex and they will do it without full knowledge of possible consequences.

I agree that health and safety are the most important issues in confronting premarital sex.  Certainly abstinance is healthy and safe.  But teens are not known for making those their priorities.  I find it so hard to believe that these abstinence people are not telling their teens more behind the scenes.  There are natural forces at work here, telling our young people to have sex and procreate- they are hard wired for the preservation of the species.  It wasn't so many years ago that people married in their teens and started their families then.  Now we have instant media telling them how glamourous and fun it all is on top of that.  How could you leave your child out there without the tools to protect themselves?

Most mothers I know don't preach abstinence before marriage, because we are saying finish your education, start your career and then think about marriage.  It's hard to advocate abstinence until late 20s or 30s.  They talk about the importance of protection from pregnancy and disease.  Most of my friends with girls do talk birth control options with their daughters.

My son asked me a few times to borrow money because he's out of condoms. Talking openly about teen sex early on seems to have worked here.

This very troubled Country is not helping matters a bit... Stand by for action...

Sidartha

I am sure that the InterNet plays a huge part in the problem due to the ease of using same and of course it is avalable to everyone, and the kids all love the Net and usr it quiite frequently...

Fellas- you'll have to answer this one. Are there still condom vending machines in restrooms? 
 They certainly are...

I think that's because you're in NJ. Even when I was a teen in NJ, birth control options were openly discussed in schools, and so were all the myths about sex (including what lines boys would try to use on girls that were lies). We had very low teen pregnancy rates in our school, and for all that discussion of birth control options, a fairly good percentage of us managed to graduate from high school still virgins. Though, even then, a lot of the message was that you didn't want to get pregnant before you finished your education, because having a baby would make it impossible to finish school and have a good career, so we were taught to wait for someone special (not necessarily marriage) and responsible, and to use birth control. (The downside is I think my generation has gone too far to the other extreme of waiting until we have our careers on track before having kids, and many of us are pushing 40 and still unmarried and/or childless, and realizing we're probably not going to have children at all at our ages...but that's another issue entirely.)

On the other hand, it is VERY different out here in WV, and was very different when I lived in Cincinnati too (OH has mixed pockets of conservative and liberal cities; Cincinnati is one of the conservative ones). Here, people are very religious, and discussion of sexuality is still taboo (and don't even start on the topic of homosexuality). I see two completely disparate populations, the teens who rebel without any education about contraception who wind up pregnant, and the adult students who have remained abstinent, but are so incredibly sheltered that when I teach them about the reproductive system in college, they really are learning it for the first time.

Some places I've visited, even the women's room has condom vending machines. I personally think that is a great thing, because women need to be just as responsible as men for ensuring they have protection.