We don’t need no (sex) education

Here’s the state of Texas leading the nation in yet another unflattering category.

In Texas and across the country, the rate of teenage births has declined significantly since its peak in 1991. Birth rates among teenagers in Texas dropped 43 percent between 1991 and 2012. In states like California and Connecticut, the drop was even larger, and nationwide, the rate declined 52 percent in that period.

But despite the improvements in the Lone Star State, it is faring worse than most. Texas has the nation’s fifth-highest birth rate among teenagers, behind Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and New Mexico. And Texas, where schools are not required to teach sex education, has the highest rate of repeat births among teenagers ages 15 to 19. Teenage birth cost Texas taxpayers $1.1 billion in health care, foster care and lost tax revenue in 2010, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Teenage mothers often drop out of school, specialists said, and their children are also likely to become teenage parents.

Gov. Rick Perry’s office said a drop in the birth rate among teenagers in the last decade corresponded with the state’s abstinence education program.

“Teen pregnancy is a multifaceted issue with many contributing factors,” a spokesman for Perry, Travis Considine, said. Among those factors, advocates said, are race, ethnicity and economic status.

Dr. Janet Realini, president of Healthy Futures of Texas, a nonprofit that works to prevent teenage and unplanned pregnancy, said that Texas’ often ineffective sex education helped explain the state’s comparatively high teenage birth rate. Other factors, she said, include the limited access to health care and insurance for the poor as well as the high rates of school dropouts and poverty.

“It’s this mentality that we’re Texas, we do it our way, we ignore science and kind of go with our gut,” said David Wiley, a professor of health education at Texas State University in San Marcos. “That Wild West mentality about public policy is not helpful.”

One state with similar demographics to Texas is faring much better: California, which cut its teenage birth rate by 64 percent from 1991 to 2012. Melissa Peskin, an assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, said Texas could lower its teenage birth rate by following California’s example in areas like sex education and access to contraception.

Others are not convinced. Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, which promotes family values and abstinence-focused sex education, said California’s abortion rate is higher than Texas’.

“In Texas, since when did we think it was a good idea to adopt any policy from California?” Saenz said.

“I don’t think the proper measure is how do we compare to other states,” he added. “It’s undeniable that not only in our state but across the country, teen birth rates are at historic lows.”

The real problem, he said, is the glamorization of sexual activity.

Boy, you couldn’t come up with a better illustration of what Professor Wiley is talking about if you tried. Jonathan Saenz is the perfect distillation of the idiotic theocracy that our state is beholden to. If you need to be reminded what 2014 is all about, think about him.

Anyway. As you might imagine, the recent budget cuts that slashed family planning funds and forced the closure of dozens of clinics didn’t help. It was so bad even some Republicans are now dimly aware that there’s a connection between unprotected sex and pregnancy. As usual, we’re in the position of hoping we can maybe get back to where we were a few years ago, which is better than where we are now but still way behind where we should be given the state’s robust population growth. Which means we’ll fall even farther behind California, and Colorado, too. Happy now, Jonathan?

On a side note, according to the Trib this story is one entry in a 10-part series on the flip side of state leaders’ aggressive pursuit of the “Texas Miracle”. Other entries will be found here, and see also their Hurting For Work series for more. Kudos on the reporting here, because Lord knows there’s a ton of stories like these out there needing to be told.

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