Saturday, August 27, 2005
Teen Pregnancy Problem
According to CNN: "One in seven high school girls in Canton, Ohio is pregnant." That's a lot of babies having babies. I'd think that the baby boomers would be happy to be guaranteed that as they slip into senility, there will be a generation full of kids who've grown up in poverty and are undereducated enough to take crappy jobs as sponge-bathers and ass-wipers for the elderly.
The baby boomers are "glass half empty" people, though. They're in a tizzy over the fact that taxpayers (by which they mean "taxpayers making over $50,000 a year," since the working poor who dutifully pay taxes while having the audacity to receive government-sponsored aid for childcare, education, housing assistance, etc., don't seem to count) will have to contribute to the raising of these bundles of joy. We Americans can't make up our minds. We can condemn abortion but we can't support the babies we've saved.
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Ohio ranks 23rd in teen pregnancy with 74 pregnancies per 1000 girls aged 15-19. The right-to-lifers aren't doing much, either. When it comes to giving birth to these babies, we rank 25th with 39.5 births per 1000 girls aged 15-19. Given that a handful will have natural miscarriages, that leaves about 30 abortions per 1000 girls. So for every hundred teenage girls, there are three abortions.
Teenage girls are going to keep getting pregnant. No amount of whining will stop them. Basically every year, 7 out of every 100 high-school-aged girls in Ohio will get knocked up. Only three of them will get abortions. The other four will give birth. The only possible answers are to a) force the girls to get abortions if they can't support their babies, b) provide financial incentives to pregnant teenage moms so they won't get abortions or c) shut the hell up and let the mothers decide what to do. Unfortunately the conservative voters in Ohio want to stop abortions but not do a damn thing to help the mothers support their children.
The baby boomers are "glass half empty" people, though. They're in a tizzy over the fact that taxpayers (by which they mean "taxpayers making over $50,000 a year," since the working poor who dutifully pay taxes while having the audacity to receive government-sponsored aid for childcare, education, housing assistance, etc., don't seem to count) will have to contribute to the raising of these bundles of joy. We Americans can't make up our minds. We can condemn abortion but we can't support the babies we've saved.
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Ohio ranks 23rd in teen pregnancy with 74 pregnancies per 1000 girls aged 15-19. The right-to-lifers aren't doing much, either. When it comes to giving birth to these babies, we rank 25th with 39.5 births per 1000 girls aged 15-19. Given that a handful will have natural miscarriages, that leaves about 30 abortions per 1000 girls. So for every hundred teenage girls, there are three abortions.
Teenage girls are going to keep getting pregnant. No amount of whining will stop them. Basically every year, 7 out of every 100 high-school-aged girls in Ohio will get knocked up. Only three of them will get abortions. The other four will give birth. The only possible answers are to a) force the girls to get abortions if they can't support their babies, b) provide financial incentives to pregnant teenage moms so they won't get abortions or c) shut the hell up and let the mothers decide what to do. Unfortunately the conservative voters in Ohio want to stop abortions but not do a damn thing to help the mothers support their children.
