Recently in Teens Category

Tyra Banks, supermodel and talk show hostess has been doing some research and oh boy, are the results scary.

She had an anonymous survey on her website this summer and over 10,000 teenage girls and young women responded.

I don’t think this was a particularly scientific study – I can’t find a copy of the actual study – and the respondents were all viewers of her show. I am not sure of the demographics, but I do know that her show is watched by women aged 18 to 34.

Regardless, it’s pretty shocking, what these girls are up to in terms of their sexual activity – like having sex at 15 and at school!

If you go to the link below, you can read some of the comments from some of the girls.

http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/2008/11/sex_drugs_and_violence_what_ar.php

And here’s a recap of an interview with Tyra on the TODAY show.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27706917/?GT1=43001

Great news from the Guttmacher Institute – the teen abortion rate has declined a whole bunch since 1974.

It’s dropped from 33% in 1974 to 17% in 2004. It took 30 years, but progress is progress, right?

The reason for the drop? Increased use of birth control and the availability of more effective methods. And for the record, the drop started before we had federally funded Abstinence Only programs, so we were already on the right track.

The only bad news in this good news is Black and Hispanic women obtain abortions at a rate 3 to 5 times higher than that of white women. Throw in a good dose of poverty, and the numbers increase.

Historically, these women are poorer and have less access to healthcare than the majority of white women – even white teenagers.

We need to think about what we can do to help young and poor women gain access to birth control. Voting for a candidate who sees the connections between poverty, access to birth control and abortion, is probably a good placed to start.