Examining a small piece of common ground in the abortion debate - where "pro-life" and "pro-choice" don't matter.
We can argue all day, all night, and well into next week about whether it is reasonable to expect teenagers to remain celibate until marriage, and chances are, neither side will change the other side's mind. And with all that arguing, we will not have done one thing to address the fact that some teenagers will not choose abstinence, and many sexually-active teenage girls will get pregnant.
According to the most recent study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), teenage pregnancy rates in the United States declined by 17% in the 1990's. However, other industrialized countries saw an even greater decline, giving the United States (along with the Russian Federation and several eastern European countries) the rather dubious distinction of having the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the industrialized world - at least four times the rates in France, Germany and Japan.
It is clear that the abstinence education favored by pro-life organizations is having some positive effect. According to the AGI's research, one-quarter of the drop in U.S. teenage pregnancy can be traced to the "abstinence movement." But it is equally clear that abstinence-only education can not and does not prevent all teenage pregnancies. According to that same report, the remaining three-quarters of the drop is attributable to improved contraceptive use among sexually active teenagers.
In the AGI's peer-reviewed publication, "Family Planning Perspectives," AGI researchers Susheela Singh and Jacqueline E. Darroch, highlighted this effect in their comments regarding the difference between pregnancy rates in western European countries and the U.S.:
"...the pragmatic European approach to teenage sexual activity, expressed in the form of widespread provision of confidential and accessible contraceptive services to adolescents, is viewed as a central factor in explaining the more rapid declines in teenage childbearing in northern and western European countries, in contrast to slower decreases in the United States."
Whether we think that sexually active teenage girls are immoral, or that they are simply making an unfortunate choice, is beside the point. Whether we are pro-life or pro-choice is beside the point. The point is that hard data shows that confidential and accessible contraception education and services prevent teen pregnancy.
Can't we, shouldn't we, as adults, leave aside our own visions of morality, and deal with that fact?
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