{"id":68159,"date":"2015-07-10T05:37:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T05:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?page_id=68159"},"modified":"2015-07-10T15:59:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T15:59:55","slug":"68159-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?page_id=68159","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Did Colorado contraception program reduce teen births by 40% in six years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you took a poll of YouthFacts writers and board members, I suspect you\u2019d find all or nearly all (including me) are in favor of providing teenagers, like adults, with full access to contraception and quality information on sex. I view that as an absolute right, all the more so in a country with 41 states that permit adults legally to have sex with high schoolers<\/a>. The fact that the large majority of what we call \u201cteen pregnancy\u201d involves adult partners (or rapists) is just one crucial reality that is studiously omitted from a debate about teens and sex that all sides stuff with incredible lies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean YouthFacts thinks interests should be allowed to exploit and claim credit for trends among teenagers unless they can meet a high level of proof. When conservatives breathlessly claimed San Marcos, California\u2019s, abstinence-only <\/a>education program cut teen pregnancies by an incredible 86 percent, we were among those debunking the absurd claim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, liberal claims that Colorado\u2019s post-2007 program<\/a> that provides free contraception to teenagers and adults caused teen births to fall by \u201c40%\u201d<\/a> deserve scrutiny. Did it?<\/p>\n

Here is the change in births by mothers younger than 20 in Colorado and the seven states bordering it from 2007 through 2013 as tabulated by the Centers for Disease Control<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Arizona -44%
\nColorado -43%
\nWyoming -42%
\nUtah -40%
\nNew Mexico -38%
\nKansas -33%
\nNebraska -32%
\nOklahoma -30%<\/p>\n

True, Colorado does show a larger than average reduction in births to young mothers over the six-year period\u2026 but Arizona actually shows the largest decline. If Colorado\u2019s program caused its decline in teen births, what caused similar declines in Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico \u2013 states that approach sex education and contraception in very different ways?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a matter of whether a contraception program is valuable (as I believe it is). The problem is that the self-promoting lies by both sides that treat teenagers as a mere commodity to advance their interests needs to stop. We need a higher ethic for talking about young people.<\/p>\n

We certainly need to understand why teen (more correctly, adult-teen) births fell, and it\u2019s important to know the biggest reason \u2013 not the one that serves the agendas of warring interest groups. YouthFacts will be presenting information on why births, as well as crime, gun killings, and other social ills, have fallen so dramatically in recent years across the country that fits the real trends \u2013 and it\u2019s surprising. [Mike Males]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Associated Press Fabricates a Juvenile Sex-Crime Panic<\/a><\/strong>
\nA recent example of the American news media\u2019s relentless effort to slander young people today as more dangerous at younger ages, the Associated Press issued a story based on its own \u201creview of national statistics\u201d that was widely carried in the broadcast and print media.<\/p>\n

The U.S. should join the rest of the world: Teenagers are adults<\/a><\/strong>
\nThe U.S. Justice Department\u2019s decision to appeal Federal District Judge Edward R. Korman\u2019s order Judge Edward R. Korman\u2019s order that Plan B emergency contraception be made available without restriction to all women seeking it regardless of age reflects the Obama administration\u2019s continuing pattern of irrational hostility toward young people.<\/p>\n

HOME <\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 BLOG<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 PRIORITY ARTICLES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did Colorado contraception program reduce teen births by 40% in six years? If you took a poll of YouthFacts writers and board members, I suspect you\u2019d find all or nearly all (including me) are in favor of providing teenagers, like adults, with full access to contraception and quality information on sex. I view that as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-68159","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68159"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68416,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68159\/revisions\/68416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}