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Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

washingtonpost.com

1–10 of 211 posts

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#3
Despite teenagers having mobile unrestricted access to all sorts of supposedly corrupting media available to them at all times, they still make rational decisions regarding their bodies. This is very encouraging to all those that value freedom.

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#4
post #2

As a teenager in the 80s, (as a joke) tried to buy condoms. Guy wouldn't sell them to me said I was too young.

I take it that the gas station bathroom didn't have them? In ND, every gas station seemed to have had the same condom dispenser. I've always wondered what company was responsible for them and who stocked them.

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#5
"The first is the most important and may be obvious: Today's teens enjoy better access to contraception and more convenient contraception than their predecessors, and more of them are taking advantage of innovations like long-acting injectable and implantable methods that can last years over a daily birth control pill. But the second cause is something that goes against the conventional wisdom. It's that teens -- despite their portrayal in popular TV and movies as uninhibited and acting only on hormones -- are having less sex."

That's interesting, but lets just take a long look at the FIRST cause, which has come at the cost of endless political fights and only exists through that constant fighting. There are still a LOT of people who think that access to birth control is the problem.

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#6
post #3

Despite teenagers having mobile unrestricted access to all sorts of supposedly corrupting media available to them at all times, they still make rational decisions regarding their bodies. This is very encouraging to all those that value freedom.

This theory doesn't make sense (and I read three articles that repeat what you say).

If you use contraception, you won't have pregnancy. So why are the rates down? Health? Then why are 25% of kids obese (I looked up those figures).

I can only assume that technology has created more social isolation.

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#7
> But the second cause is something that goes against the conventional wisdom. It's that teens -- despite their portrayal in popular TV and movies as uninhibited and acting only on hormones -- are having less sex.

Could rising childhood obesity be contributing to this as well?

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#8
post #3

Despite teenagers having mobile unrestricted access to all sorts of supposedly corrupting media available to them at all times, they still make rational decisions regarding their bodies. This is very encouraging to all those that value freedom.

This theory doesn't make sense (and I read three articles that repeat what you say). If you use contraception, you won't have pregnancy. So why are the rates down? Health? Then why are 25% of kids obese (I looked up those figures). I can only assume that technology has created more social isolation.

> technology has created more social isolation

This. If you think that technology has done a good job of informing teens about the risks of pregnancy and the importance of contraception, you are probably being far too optimistic in the face of a dire situation (i.e. mass estrangement).

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#9
The thing that will save the world from overpopulation- the internet. Both as a source of information, and perhaps as a way of abstracting social interactions that otherwise would have more opportunity to be acted out in sweatier ways.

Re: Teen birth rate hits all-time low, led by 50% decline among Hispanics and blacks

#10
post #3

Despite teenagers having mobile unrestricted access to all sorts of supposedly corrupting media available to them at all times, they still make rational decisions regarding their bodies. This is very encouraging to all those that value freedom.

This theory doesn't make sense (and I read three articles that repeat what you say). If you use contraception, you won't have pregnancy. So why are the rates down? Health? Then why are 25% of kids obese (I looked up those figures). I can only assume that technology has created more social isolation.

Are you putting forth the hypothesis that teens are fucking less? Do you have anything beyond assumption?
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