Instablogs - Mobile - Pregnancy Rate Astounding at Chicago High School

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It’s not surprising. The inequity for African Americans, Hispanics (and the thousand other ethnicities that populate American inner-cities) is an ongoing issue. Years of under-investment, under-development. People are not given the correct education about their own reproductive systems. Mix that with a strong dose of fundamentalist Christianity (100 million Americans believe that the entire Universe began 6000 years ago) and you get an environment where this sort of statistic and sociological phenomena occurs.

I read an article in New Scientist magazine a little while ago which demonstrated a sociological concurrence between teenage pregnancies and the harshness of a particular (social) environment. It is something that is noticeable in many other species as well. When resources are limited, competition is greater and it behooves a fertile female to have a child as soon as she possible can because she may not be able to later and she has to attempt to capitalise on what resources may be available at the time.
This is not, obviously, something that people necessarily consciously participate in - it’s a part of the way human beings are ”wired” such that the survival of the our own species is paramount and in tough times, it makes evolutionary sense to have children as soon as possible, when a mother is most fertile and resilient and the resources to nurture a child are subject to greater competition.

I responded to this article’s appearance elsewhere with the comments above and the bit about Christianity caused offence to someone. My point is not (defensive reactions being pre-empted) that there is something wrong with Christianity or that it makes people have teen pregnancies, my point is that when an education system fails (for whatever reasons of location or socio-economic imperative), people may place all of their faith in a religion which covers ethics and morals very, very well but doesn’t not say so much about actual human behaviours or science and medicine.

That’s all.
OK.

Rudolf

It cannot be that simple. Something bigger is wrong here. Maybe the right place to start is to talk to these young girls. Has anybody ever asked them ”what the hell is going on with y’all?”

Shoko

In my opinion, the best correlate for teen birth rates is based on family income, The poorer one is, the greater the liklihood of having a teen birth, which is also over-represented by black and latinos.

Tobin

It shows what most people have always known: if you tell a kid he can't do something, that's exactly what he's going to do! Abstinence Only is the most naive policy ever in the history of man.

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