Wow - do any of you ever go into poverty areas, or work with teenaged girls -
work sheets - really - and they don't watch TV - how 2000 is that?
As I said, our teenaged pregnancy rate is down, markedly. 50% from the high in 1990, and even in the years from 2010 - 2012 it was down 15%. What seems to be the real
factors, using birth control, and overall access to medical care.
Having fathers present is of course where everyone would like this to end, but, that is a difficult nut to crack. You can't force guys to stick around, and in the case of impoverished families, there are many reasons you might not want the father around (heck there are probably plenty of cases where having the mom around isn't a great idea either). Giving out free birth control, much easier, and hopefully, as those teenaged girls who aren't getting pregnant, they break the cycle of teenaged motherhood. This seems to be the case as we see the results of the first round of decreases in teenaged pregnancy in the 90s. They will have more opportunities, will stay in school longer, get out of impoverished areas, and maybe wait to have kids until they are married, and know the father will stick around.
And for all of you who don't think that behavior and environment aren't closely tied together, well, I guess you don't live in Watts.