The Elly Report: Local Perspectives

Southbridge Teen Birth Rate and What to Do About It

By William J. Gillmeister

The Southbridge Evening News reported that Southbridge has the fifth highest teen birth rate in the Commonwealth. Most parents and even teens view teen pregnancy and births as something to be avoided, as unfortunate mistakes. An important assumption is often over looked when we consider teen births: the mother is unmarried. Indeed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 4 out of 5 teen births are to unmarried mothers. Indeed, our outlook dramatically changes if the teen is pregnant after marriage to one of joy and excitement. It's only if the teen is unmarried that concerns arise.

My first thought is why do we care about whether the mother is married or not? From a practical matter we care because a mother who has a baby needs a significant amount of assistance. The undisputed best environment for a woman who has a baby is marriage, where her husband is there to support and protect. From an emotional, psychological, and physiological standpoint, a significant body of research has established that women are significantly better off in a long-term, monogamous marriage.

Dr. W. David Hager, M.D., formerly the head of FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and Director of the University of Kentucky Affiliated Residency Program in OB-GYN at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, writes, "We must teach our young people what the physical, emotional, and relational advantages are of delaying sexual activity until they are involved in a mutually monogamous relationship, preferably in marriage!" Earlier in the article, Dr. Hager articulately and with well-referenced sources identifies the many consequences of sexual intimacy outside of marriage. Aside from the possibility of pregnancy and the risks of acquiring a sexually-transmitted disease, Dr. Hager notes that teens who engage in intimate sex outside of marriage are at much higher risk for depression and suicide, as well as regret, guilt, low self-esteem, corruption of character, and on and on. All of this is avoided with sexual abstinence until marriage.

As to Southbridge's high teen birth rate, some of the reasonable thoughts on why the rate is so high range from an almost normalization of teen pregnancy and birth to no father figure and a lack of activities to focus attention of teens away from sexual activity. Most certainly these are factors. If young adults have poor role models as to how men and women are supposed to behave and all they see is siblings, friends, and even parents being sexually active outside of marriage, then it does, indeed, become normal.

The solution is to implement a program modeled on California's Adolescent Sibling Pregnancy Program. It seems reasonable -- implement a program to target siblings and other household members where a teen has become pregnant and had a baby. These sisters, brothers, or even daughters are considered to be at a higher risk. Presumably, if you provide educational materials and oversight, you will reduce the risk of pregnancy of siblings and thereby lower teen birth rates.

An evaluation of the program by the Guttmacher Institute, notorious for its pro-choice, pro-safe sex propaganda, provides a description of the program. The program takes these at-risk siblings and provides activities and adult supervision through regular meetings in other interactions to educate these youth of various aspects of engaging in sexual activity. So far so good. But the program also provides the safe-sex mantra complete with condoms and other contraceptives. The Guttmacher evaluation proclaimed the program a success. My guess is that some of the positive outcomes came from the activities and positive relationships with caring adults as one anecdote of the evaluation provides.

In the case of Southbridge's program, Health Awareness Services of Central Massachusetts is handling the program. A quick visit to their web site is somewhat shocking. Under "Supplies you will find: Are you in need of safer sex supplies or information? The Community Education Program has you covered. We have limited supplies of condoms, dental dams, lubes, reality condoms, and flavored condoms." How hip; they have you covered with "flavored condoms!" Your tax dollars hard at work!

I wonder if these folks will bother to tell these youth of the dangers spoken of emotional and psychological damage that may occur by engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage, such as by Dr. Hager warns of? I doubt it. I believe that a program that engages these at-risk youths with trusting and caring adult relationships and wholesome activities will undoubtedly have a powerful impact on the lives of these youths. But why mess that up by condoning sexual activity with the "have-safe-sex" message?

William Gillmeister is a PhD Agricultural Economist, a school committee member in Brookfield, MA, and a devoted family man. Contact him at wgillmeister@charter.net.