More Teen Births in Religious States
| Wed Sep. 16, 2009 6:14 PM PDT
Whis is this not a surprise? The states with the strongest conservative religious beliefs also tend to have the highest rates of teen pregnancies and births. This according to a new paper forthcoming in Reproductive Health.
I posted a blog on a similar story a while back about religious teens having more abortions.
Live Science reports that this little piece of paradox is likely due to the fact that communities with high religiosity frown upon contraception as well as sex education. The combination is as good as a euphemism for pregnancy.
The top 10 states for conservative religious beliefs:
- Mississippi
- Alabama
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Louisiana
- Utah
- Arkansas
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
- Oklahoma
The top 10 states for teen births:
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Texas
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- Oklahoma
- Nevada
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- Georgia
Researcher Joseph Strayhorn of Drexel University College of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh speculates: "We conjecture that religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."
'Cause nobody can do that. Ask Bristol Palin.
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Comments
More Teen Births in Religious States
Submitted by Deb in CA. (not verified) on Wed Sep. 16, 2009 11:59 PM PDT.
I managed to escape from a backwards state that shoves religion down your throat. Not only do these states have a high teen pregnancy, they also have the highest pedophilia "preachers" per capita. I know, I was molested by the church preacher(s), there were several due to high pedophile turn over, that my grandma attended. I never told her, or my parents. I didn't want to delude what my grandma thought of her religion. My grandma and my parents are deceased now, may they rest in peace. The preachers? Well, may they ROT in HELL!
As they revel in the throes
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Sep. 21, 2009 10:43 AM PDT.
As they revel in the throes of fornication! lol...what would Jesus do???
Duh and Duhher....
Submitted by avannavon on Mon Sep. 21, 2009 11:28 AM PDT.
People who don't believe in abortion tend to have more babies than those who gaily trot off to the nearest reset clinic and exercise their right to ..... no mysteries there. Why even waste money on a study like this---or on reporting the dumb results?
Population and Climate Change
Submitted by James Salsman (not verified) on Mon Sep. 21, 2009 11:57 AM PDT.
Matt Yglesias: Population and Climate Change
Teen Pregnancies & Sex in Church
Submitted by Jeni in SC (not verified) on Mon Sep. 21, 2009 1:10 PM PDT.
To Duh and Duhher....
It needs to be pointed out. Look at Bristol Palin.
To More Teen Births in Religious States:
I live in SC, and when I was a 15 yr old girl I told my church I no longer believed in the divinity of Jesus. I was quickly made an appointment with the Baptist church preacher to talk me out of my unbelief. This preacher, alone in his office, got very close to me with a big smile while discussing various dogma & so discomforted me that I moved away from him. He was later forced to resign over having an affair with a married parishioner who decided to confess. Several other women came forward & confessed he had seduced them as well, including women from his previous church. He had been a southern Baptist preacher over 20 yrs. When I mentioned this to my grandmother, who belonged to the church where he had been before, she said she was not surprised, that he had a "reputation."
I've come to the conclusion religion does not stop people from being sinners. On the contrary. Especially when it comes to sex.
Jeni, I've come to the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Sep. 21, 2009 2:03 PM PDT.
Jeni, I've come to the conclusion that most religious leaders don't believe in God at all, and therefore feel that they can get away with using His name as a way to dominate the masses and to make money (boy are they in for a rude shock when they die!). These egotistical bastards use the church as a barrier between the parishoners and God, and only give you access to God if you pay their toll with either cold hard cash or "somthing else" involving lots of skin. Organized religion is more corrupt and evil than either politics or the Mafia.
actually only five of the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Sep. 22, 2009 6:14 PM PDT.
actually only five of the top ten states for teen pregnancy rates are also included in the author's list of the top ten 'most conservative religious states' ..... (quite a subjective designation anyhow) .... so the premise is rather thin, if you look at the author's own 'data' ..... how to explain nevada, arizona, new mexico and texas ---- all in the top ten
nevada, arizona, new mexico, texas & the state of compassion.
Submitted by AP on Tue Sep. 22, 2009 9:34 PM PDT.
Those states can likely be explained, in part, by the anti-birth control influence of the the catholic church on the hispanic population.
And regarding an earlier comment: I can guarantee you that no woman goes merrily even to get a pap-smear!!! To heartlessly claim that any woman would do so in such a painful circumstance does a disservice not only to the women, but to those whose faith teaches them compassion.
Sadly, some claim the moral high ground by demonizing (and dehumanizing) those who disagree with their religious INTERPRETATIONS. Those who are amongst what I must call the "Hateful Faithful" rarely win any hearts and minds... much less, save any souls. Perhaps a little soul-searching of their own, may lead them to the rafter in their own eye.
The point of the article was that “abstinence only” education doesn't seem to work. While abstinence for underaged youths is the ideal, and obviously needs to be encouraged, clearly not every young person will remain abstinent. They must also be taught safe sexual practices and the consequences of unsafe sexual behaviors. For some, making subjects too taboo only increases their intrigue. The right balance needs to be struck.
Back in the old days, no one taught us anything about sex.
Submitted by Robert Preston (not verified) on Thu Sep. 24, 2009 6:31 PM PDT.
There were NO pregnancies at my high school and if they were the girl just disappeared without a trace and no one noticed anything at all and if they did they disappeared too.
No one ever disappeared at my high school.
We should bring back dissections and vivisections because nothing takes you mind off of sex with the Biology teacher more than cutting open a fetal pig and exploring it's organs or pithing a frog and slicing it open to see what makes it work.
Kids today are soft and spoiled - no wonder they get pregnant.
That's what happens when you don't let kids play with fireworks, pipebombs and knives at school. I wsa the mumbly peg champon for a week and n ow a kid doing that would be thrown out of school and put on an FBI list. No wonder kids are fucking. The FBI won't put you on a list for THAT!
Hell, I bet most kids have never even seein a stick of dynamte, much less touch one or set one off.
Kids need stimualtion and without that they will stimulate themselves and that means Pregancy which starts with the letter P which rhymes with T which stands for Trouble.
Could I interest you in some Band Instruments?
"study" conclusions not obvious
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Sep. 22, 2009 6:26 PM PDT.
Not much of a study, this. Several religiously conservative states apparently have few babies out of wedlock: Utah, for example. And New Mexico is not religiously conservative and it appears in the teenage birther list. Where is a list of religiously liberal states along with their rates of teenage motherhood? How about, Heaven forbid, a regression line that has an index of religious conservatism on the x axis and teenage motherhood on the y?
very first word of article misspelled
Submitted by Michael Dare (not verified) on Thu Sep. 24, 2009 11:37 AM PDT.
"Whis" is this not a surprise?
Journalism ain't what it used to be
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu Sep. 24, 2009 6:36 PM PDT.
Either this is JournalSIM or the author is a pregnant teenager.
Obviously!
Submitted by Dr. Johnson. (not verified) on Thu Sep. 24, 2009 6:16 PM PDT.
Those irreligious states are hotbeds of homosexuality and perverse heterosexual acts of sodomy, both oral and anal which produce no pregnancies AND no babies.
So your study is worthless unless it takes into account non-reproductive sex acts.
There are states thata do not fit the pattern, such as Georgia, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada which means that 4 out of 10 samples do not support this theory which is easily explained be the fact that no self respecting homosexual would be caught dead in those states as they lack culture, theaters and restaurants and Starbucks Coffee Emporiums which would otherwise attract a less reproductive crowd, plus in those states you can only buy condoms at truck stops and service station bathrooms that reek of urine cakes and cigarette butts and are heavily patrolled by lonely and fat state troopers and congressmen awaiting an enchanting moment in a stall and what Gay man would go for THAT?
Besides, what else is there for teenagers to do in Georgia, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada aside from getting drunk and having sex in the backseat of a Japanese car?
So religion has little to do with this teen pregnancy thing and if we could go back in time to a time before religion had taken hold of our species, I am certain that one would find a HIGH incidence of teen pregnancies among our ancestors which is probably where we inherited it from.
Leave Bristol Palin out of this
Submitted by Moral and Ethical Referee (not verified) on Thu Sep. 24, 2009 6:43 PM PDT.
That is really low class and puts you on a league with Glenn Beck, Joan Walsh and Mike Savage.
Poor form!
15 point penalty.
HEY PUNDIT! LEAVE THEM TEENAGERS ALONE!
projeksiyon
Submitted by Projeksiyon kiralama (not verified) on Sat Oct. 31, 2009 8:39 AM PDT.
thank you
U.S. states whose residents
Submitted by house costa blanca (not verified) on Mon Nov. 2, 2009 10:13 AM PST.
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
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