Teen pregnancy in national spotlight

By Carla Hinton

Published: September 15, 2008

News that a vice presidential nominee's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant has turned teen pregnancy into a national talking point.

Health leaders and others working to shed light on the issue say that's a good thing.

The more conversation about the issue, the better, they say.

"Hopefully, the talk will lead to some positive discussions for some young people because we have been ignoring them for too long,” said Sharon Rodine, director of youth initiatives at the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said recently that her daughter, Bristol, is expecting a child. The Alaska governor made the announcement shortly after she was introduced to the country as the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Rodine said Palin's daughter is simply the latest of several high-profile teen pregnancies to make headlines in recent months. Teen actress Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears and the star of a Nickelodeon cable TV show, gave birth in June.

An official with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy said these cases bring public awareness to an issue at a critical time.

"Getting pregnant and bearing children is one of the most important steps any person takes, and we certainly wish Bristol Palin and her family the best,” Sarah Brown, chief executive of the campaign, said in a statement.

"Given that teen pregnancy will once again be in the national spotlight, we also hope that parents nationwide will take this opportunity to talk to their own children about sex, love, relationships, values, pregnancy and family formation.”

The campaign's statement noted that the teen pregnancy rate and birth rate have declined dramatically since the early 1990s (down 38 percent and 32 percent, respectively), driven by decreased sexual activity and increased contraceptive use. Even so, the campaign said, recent data show that the decline in teen sex and improvement in contraceptive use have leveled off. And the teen birth rate is on the rise for the first time in 15 years.

And the campaign statement said the teen pregnancy and birth rates in Alaska are below the national average and, since the early 1990s, have declined more steeply than the national average.

Oklahoma has not fared so well.

"Between 2005 and 2006, and that's the latest data we have, the births to teens in Oklahoma jumped by more than 500,” she said.

"It's an alarm bell going off because, in so many ways, we've become complacent.”

Rodine said it's sometimes hard for people to relate to numbers so she found another way to describe the problem.

"To help put this in perspective, I tell people that the number of teens giving birth in Oklahoma in 2006 was more than double the number of incoming female freshmen entering OU and OSU that fall semester.

"We need to say, ‘Diplomas before diapers.'”

Rodine and Linsey Garlington, maternal and child health consultant for the state Health Department, said they encourage parents to discuss the issue with their teens.

"Keep those lines of communication open,” Garlington said. "You just have to talk often and talk openly.”

Rodine said she hopes the heightened awareness surrounding the high-profile situation with Bristol Palin "starts conversations among young people and conversations among adults who should think, ‘We can do better. How can we help teens avoid this path?'”

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