Half of Teen Moms Don’t Use Birth Control — Why That’s No Surprise

[NNN0LHI]

http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/20/why-its-not-surprising-that-half-of-teen-girls-who-give-birth-shun-birth-control/

Even at an all-time low, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is still the highest among developed countries.

By Bonnie Rochman | @brochman | January 20, 2012 |

Teens are notorious for spurning adults’ advice, but when it comes to getting pregnant, their refusal to listen is more than merely annoying: it’s become a public health problem.

A report released Thursday by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed close to 5,000 girls in 19 states who got pregnant unintentionally and subsequently gave birth between 2004 and 2008. Half had not used birth control and a third explained their reasoning by saying they didn’t think they could get pregnant. Go figure.

What’s behind their curious calculations is pretty murky because the CDC didn’t ask them to explain their thinking. But previous research has discovered that girls who get pregnant in their teens harbor a number of misconceptions about their menstrual cycles. Some thought there was no way to get pregnant at the same time they lost their virginity, while others had an incorrect understanding of how ovulation works and at what point in the month they were most fertile. Still others thought they couldn’t get pregnant at all, although why they believed that is unclear.

In fact, research conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that 40% of respondents said contraception wasn’t important because they thought they would get pregnant regardless. So while the CDC study authors expressed surprise at the number of teens not using birth control, Bill Albert, spokesman for the Campaign, barely blinked.

[salvorhardin]

1. This is the effect of decades of mythinformation and disinformation and...

...the curtailing of sex ed classes -- ignorance and nihilism! They either don't know, or don't think they have any control.

[w8liftinglady]

2. In My state- they are taught "Abstinence only"

No real secret.

[XemaSab]

3. I would like to see this data broken down by socioeconomic class

You see, we're not really a first world country.

Some of us live in a first world country, and some of us live in a third world country. Guess which world all the morons getting pregnant live in?

[w8liftinglady]

4. my partner offered to teach std prevention and contraception to 5th grade boys

He was denied.
his school had several 4th graders who were sexually active.99% below the poverty level.Kids raising kids.kids getting the clap,chlamidia.south Dallas is seeing an increase in HIV in sexually active gay and bi teenagers...because they will NOT allow open discussion of sexuality.We are going back in time.

[surrealAmerican]

5. It's a mistake to conclude that this is because ...

... teens are "spurning adults’ advice". They may well be FOLLOWING adults' advice: it's just really bad advice. "Birth control is evil", or "bad for you", "if you use it you're a bad person", "god will protect you". Teens have no monopoly on misconceptions that lead to pregnancy.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. Barriers for teens to get contraception devices, end of sex education,

the rise of the abstinance only meme....all of these are directly contributing to a pregnancy epidemic in teens. And this is so sad, these children are ruining their lives, even if they don't realize it yet.

[Motown_Johnny]

7. 'cause if they used birth control most of them wouldn't be moms

[NNN0LHI]

8. Really wanted to post the fifth paragraph in the OP but was limited with copyright rules. Here it is

“Not to get too biological here, but the only teen girls getting pregnant are the ones who are having sex and not using contraception consistently, carefully or at all,” he says.