If Bristol Palin Were a Texan

[underpants]

http://www.examiner.com/x-4700-Houston-Parenting-Teenagers-Examiner~y2009m3d24-If-Bristol-Palin-Were-a-Texan

If Bristol Palin were a Texan, she’d be more likely to have another child before adulthood and less likely to graduate from high school after the birth of her child. And if Miss Palin were a Texan, she certainly would not be alone….statistically speaking.

As a new teen mother who has decided to remain unmarried, Bristol Palin joins a rising number of women and girls similarly situated. Unfortunately, in Texas, this is especially true. Nationally, researchers have established that the U.S. is experiencing a bit of a baby boom. A recent review of 2007 birth certificates by the CDC’s Center for Health Statistics , disclosed that 4,317,119 babies were born that year.This number exceeds those born at the height of the original baby boom of the 1950’s. The study also found that 40% of those babies were born to unwed mothers. This is another record-breaker, though the rise of unwed mothers has been a steady climb.

One-quarter of all unwed mothers are under 20-years-old. Like Bristol Palin, they are young and single and severing ties with baby’s Daddy to go it alone. S. Philip Morgan, a leading fertility researcher at Duke University, when interviewed by Mike Stobbe of the Chicago Tribune , said “ is the poster child for what you do when you get pregnant now", meaning that teens, like their adult counterparts, are increasingly choosing to parent alone. To add to their complications, many teen mothers are experiencing multiple pregnancies and births before adulthood. Texas has the highest rate of repeat pregnancies among teens at 24%.

[liberal N proud]

1. Sad to see so many lives destroyed

Because it not only effects the life of the mother. Those children pay a heavy price and become more likely to repeat their mothers fate.

[MineralMan]

2. Ah, but, children are only precious until they're born.

After that, the morons aren't interested.

[liberal N proud]

3. That is why the welfare state is passed from one generation to the next

The conservatives don't want to pay for these people yet they don't want to provide them an opportunity either.

It underlines the reason Obama's Education and Health-care initiatives in the budget are so important. If you don't treat this generation and educate the next, the situation will stay the same at best.