Teen Pregnancy Ain't Nothin' New

So you've got a bunch of teenaged girls in a small Massachusetts town who allegedly made a pact to get knocked up and people are alarmed about "babies having babies" and the "moral fabric of our society."

Yo, get a grip. These aren't the first teenage girls to get knocked up and they won't be the last. Now, word is, there was NEVER a pact at all.

In fact, why in hell is this all over every Web site and TV talk show, anyway? I've lived in neighborhoods where 16-year-old pregnant girls were the norm, not the exception.

Now, I'm not saying that's good, but I don't understand why Gloucester, Mass., is such a surprise.
According to 2006 published statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, overall teen pregnancy rates in the United States are declining. In fact, the rate was 30 percent lower in 2002 than the peak in 1991 at 61.8 births per 1000 females. Also, between 1990 and 2002 the pregnancy rate among girls who had ever had sex at all dropped 28 percent.

Among black girls, according to teenpregnancy.com, pregnancies are dropping faster than with any other group. Between 1990 and 2000, the rate dropped 40 percent. However, at 63.7 births per 1000, black girls still have significantly more teen pregnancies than the national average.

Now what does all this mean? Well first, the stats blow the hype away, so don't drink the media Kool-Aid. Teen pregnancies, although we are frustrated when we see them, have actually leveled off and declined. In the black community, they look so bad because, like in nearly all-white Gloucester, they are concentrated among the low-income side of town.

Secondly, these stats should show us something. The pregnancies all began a decline in the early 1990s as use of oral contraceptives became widely available. For many teen girls, the pill replaced their father's foot-in-your-ass form of birth control, which is largely missing as divorce rates climbed among American families.

Here's where the Religious Right (or self-righteous) always bowls me over in laughter. They are constantly babbling about how America is going down a moral toilet, but they never look up facts and figures to back up the garbage they spew. What's more, the person they look to as the principle figure in their faith was supposed to have been born to a teenage mother!

Now, as for the Gloucester 17, if you really look at it, these are not kids at all. They are really young women who made an adult decision: the choice to carry a child to term. Many girls across the nation make these choices and have options. For instance, they can choose not to have sex, thereby avoiding pregnancy completely; they can demand their partners use contraception, or use contraception themselves; they can abort the pregnancy; or they can have and raise their children.

I don't know enough about the girls in this case to make any assumptions, but if media reports are right, they chose the affirmative when it came to childbearing. So if they made such an adult decision, they should be treated as such. In a case like this, the expectation should be placed on them that they will do what is necessary to provide for themselves and their babies up to and including completing their education and obtaining marketable skills, rather than hoping to be taken care of by the public gallery because "babies are cute."

Recently, I read a fascinating book called The Case Against Adolescence, by Dr. Robert Epstein, who teaches at Harvard and is editor-at-large of Psychology Today magazine. He argues that we should eliminate the teenage years as a social phenomenon altogether. Epstein believes -- and I'm inclined to agree -- that when you are about 14 or 15, you are essentially an adult, that you are capable of making adult choices, and can operate with the competency -- and responsibility and accountability -- of any grown person.

The problem, he says, is that we tend to tell teenagers that they are feeble little kids, unable to make their own decisions and that they need to continue to suckle on their mother's social, financial and psychological teet for an increasing number of years.

The result is adolescents going to extremes to prove their maturity, and perhaps having a kid at age 16 is one way to do it. In fact, Epstein says, lots of teenage girls had kids back in the day because by that time they were married and considered old enough to start a life with their husbands of roughly the same age.

So, I say all this to say, maybe if you want to avert more Gloucester-style baby booms, how about demanding responsible mature behavior from adolescents rather than looking at them as doe-eyed cherubs. As I've said, they are essentially grown, so make them act like it, thereby at least forcing teen problems to become adult problems: their adult problems.

Our Lens Sept. 1

Hector Jackson (C), who impersonates the late US pop star Michael Jackson, gestures while he takes part in the "I do dance Thriller" event which attempts to break the Guinness World Record for the biggest mass "Thriller" dance, in Mexico City, on August 29. Up to 15,000 people are expected to take part in a potentially record breaking mass performance of Michael Jackson's famed "Thriller" dance on the day he would have turned 51.

Omar Torres, AFP/ Getty Images

A long line of fire marches west towards the communities of Acton and Sunland-Tujanga on August 31 in Los Angeles, California. At least 18 homes were destroyed and 12,000 more homes and 500 commercial buildings are being threatened in the fire which already took two lives. The wildfire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon near a ranger station and the Angeles Crest Highway above La Canada Flintridge, has forced thousands of evacuations.

Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images

Venus Williams of the United States reaches for a shot against Vera Dushevina of Russia during day one of the 2009 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 31, in Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.

Chris McGrath, Getty Images

A Kenyan Muslim child reads verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, on the fifth day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in a Madrassa (Religion School), in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Aug. 26. Muslims throughout the world are celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, where observants fast from dawn till dusk.

Sayyid Azim, AP

Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center on August 28, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Discovery is scheduled for a 13-day mission to the International Space Station.

Joe Raedle, Getty Images

Host Vanessa Williams performs with dancer Gilles Marini onstage at the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at The Orpheum Theatre on August 30, in Los Angeles, California.

Jesse Grant, WireImage

A girl plays with tomato pulp during the annual "Tomatina" tomato fight fiesta in the village of Bunol, near Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 26. Bunol's town hall estimated more than 40,000 people, some from as far away as Japan and Australia, took up arms Wednesday with 100 tons of tomatoes in the yearly food fight known as the 'Tomatina' now in its 64th year.

Alberto Saiz, AP

Tom Wainaina recounts the events that lead to his being burned over most of his upper body August 26 in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Wainaina was burned by a group of men during post-election violence in Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election. Ethnic-tribal violence left over 1,000 people dead. The non-governmental organization (NGO) Concern, in cooperation with local Kenyan groups, has launched a campaign to provide the urban poor with cash grants to start a business or get back on their feet after suffering disproportionately from post-election violence in 2007. The money is transferred to the recipients via a mobile phone which insures a safe and simple financial transaction to customers who don?t have bank accounts. Wainaina is one of dozens of Kibera residents to receive the assistance of a cash grant. Hairdressers, grocery stores and food vendors are just some of the businesses that have been financed through the program.

Spencer Platt, Getty Images

People standing near the grave of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) look at the grave of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) at Arlington National Cemetery August 30, in Arlington, Virginia. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was buried yesterday next to his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) after he died of brain cancer on August 25.

Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

US President Barack Obama takes out his daughters Malia (R) and Sasha (2nd L) and niece Suhaila Ng (L) to shop in the Alleys general store on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on August 30, 2009.

Jewel Samad, AFP/ Getty Images

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