After fifteen years of consecutive decline, the teen birth rate rose 3 percent between 2005 and 2006; and, is expected to rise again when the 2007 rates are released. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, there are more than 400,000 teen births in the United States each year. No one escapes the pain of this national disgrace.
The babies born to teen mothers enter a world stacked against thtme. They are more likely to be in foster care. They are less likely to finish highg school. The daughters are more likley to be teenage mothers and the sons are more likely to go to jail than the children of older parents.
The teenage mothers are unlikely to finish high school. Their lack of education extrememly limits their vocational future. The teenage fathers rarely assume responsibility for their children or have any role i8n their upbringing. This cavalier attitude toward parental responsibility sets a poor example for other teen males and impairs the possibility that these young men will become healthy husbands and fathers.
Who pays the price for these poor sexual judgments? The taxpayers…people like you and me. Teen childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers $9.1 billion each year. California and Texas bear almost $2 billion of this burden.
How can we solve this national probllem? Getting parents involved in the sex education of their children will help. Parents are aware of the risks that their teens will get invovled in pregnancy. This possibility adds to the anxiety of launching teens into life.
However, since parents likely got very help from their parents in facing the sexual issues of life, they find it awkward and embarrassing to approach this subject with their own children. That is why I have launched my Parents First program which is designed to enable parents to become the primary sex educators of their children. You can learn more about it at: www.teachethetruthaboutsex.com and www.drdobbins.com. Please get involved! Let me no what you think and give me your suggestions for improving the program.
