Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 40, Issue 9


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Volume 40, Issue 9.
February 4, 2003

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Increased contraceptive use, education means lowers number of pregnant teens
By Joseph Luchenta
Mesa Legend


	PHOTO BY CARLY SCHORMAN/MESA LEGEND Shaeleen Johnston is glad she waited until her 20s before deciding to have a child. She is expecting a son in March.

Pregnancy among teenage girls in the United States has been on a downward trend since the early nineties. Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that teen pregnancy rates fell to 48.5 births per every 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 years old by 2000. This was down almost 10 percent from the previous years which led to a record high of 62.1 births per 1,000 teenagers in 1991.

Teens of all ages have been included in this general decrease. Those in the youngest demographic researched, 15 to 17 years, had a decrease of 29 percent, from 38.7 to 27.4 per 1,000. Older teens, those 18 to 19 years, saw a decline from 94.4 to 79.2 per 1,000.
Arizona’s teen pregnancy numbers have undergone similar changes despite having the third highest rate in the United States. The Arizona Department of Health Services, (ADHS), devoted serious research to the issue after the implementation of a public awareness campaign referred to as “Sex Can Wait.” The campaign focuses on the promotion of abstinence until marriage and provides some ground level information accessible even for pre-teens.

The ADHS research concluded that the state had a teen pregnancy rate slightly higher than that of the nation in 2000 with 72 pregnancies per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 years. The report also stated that Arizona teens in all racial and ethnic categories had higher rates of pregnancy than their national respective peer groups.
The mystery behind the numbers, however, remains just that. Some have speculated that there is a real increase in the practice of abstinence but this is hard to prove from an empirical standpoint.

One major incentive is the cutback in welfare aid to teenage mothers. The cutbacks began in 1996 after welfare reform was initiated. Ultimately, states can act compassionately or not when dealing with teenage mothers seeking welfare benefits.

Arizona has maintained relative moderation considering federal law allows states to revoke welfare benefits from pregnant teens entirely. Starting in 1995 with the enactment of EMPOWER, (Employing and Moving People Off Welfare and Encouraging Responsibility), the ADHS has set family benefit caps and invested over $2 million to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies via education programs worked on in conjunction with the ADHS.

The reality of the situation, however, is that economic incentives and education programs are not always going to prove effective. Arizona counties with higher rates of poverty, and thus in theory more receptive to the welfare reform incentives, have actually shown greater rates of teen pregnancy. Both Santa Cruz and Yuma County have more pregnancies per 1,000 teens than Maricopa. These counties also have mean hourly wages of $13.62 per hour and $11.93 respectively, in comparison to Maricopa’s mean wage of $16.12 per hour.

Very possibly, the epoch of contraceptive methods and their increased availability are key factors in this declination phenomenon. That said, there is the reoccurring stipulation that accompanies contraceptive use: women do not have access for simple forms of ‘on the spot’ contraceptive, those that are applied and effective only during intercourse.

Certainly, females have innumerable methods by which to decrease their fertility, most of which involve long term, regularly administered doses of potent chemicals. But rarely will a female tell you this is a regimen to which they are apathetic.

On the verge of revolutionizing contraceptives, a coalition known as Global Campaign for Microbicides is attempting to put to market contraceptives that can be applied topically prior to intercourse. Thus making it something either party could initiate, even unbeknownst to their partner.

Many contraceptive/ STD preventatives are currently stalled at the research stage. Of the 60 forms analyzed in research, 11 have proven safe for animals and are now being used in human research.
A failure to attract government research funding and a pharmaceutical industry unwilling to invest in microbicides is keeping the potential society-altering product from coming to market. If microbicides prove effective, the products could be available within 5 to 7 years, but only with the proper funding.