Thursday, 28 March 2024

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is May 2

LAKE COUNTY -- Hundreds of thousands of teens nationwide are expected to participate in the sixth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy on May 2.


The purpose of the day is to focus the attention of teens on the importance of avoiding too-early pregnancy and parenthood. On the national day, teens nationwide are asked to go to www.teenpregnancy.org and take a short scenario-based “quiz” that asks young people what they would do in a number of sexual situations.


The message of the national day is straightforward: Sex has consequences. The online quiz (available in English and Spanish) delivers this message directly to teens and challenges them to think carefully about what they might do “in the moment.”


Sarah Brown, Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy states “The simple and direct message of the Quiz is: sex is serious, have a plan.”


Why a national day to prevent teen pregnancy?


Despite hitting the lowest level in 30 years, 31 percent of teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20. Many teens say they are concerned about pregnancy, but still think “it can’t happen to me.” But it does – to 750,000 girls every year. And the No. 1 reason teen guys and girls give for not using protection is that they weren’t planning to have sex and it “just happened.” The online quiz is designed to help teens come up with their own plans for avoiding pregnancy.


Lake County has seen major reduction in the number of teen births since the year 2000. According to a report by the Public Health Institute “Teen Births in California 2006 Spring Update” teen birth rates fell 16.6 percent from 54.1per 1000 births in 2000 to 37.5 in 2004.


This rate drop categorized Lake County as a Beacon County due to countywide teen birth rates lower than the state average and a decline in teen birth rates greater than the state average. Although Lake County has shown improvement, we still rank 33rd of 58 Counties.


Adolescents in Lake County have been served through teen parenting programs for 18 years; since 1995 Lake Family Resource Center’s Teen Parenting program has served over 1,100 teen moms and dads.


“We see a significantly lower rate of repeat births for those served in our programs,” said Gloria Flaherty, executive director of Lake Family Resource Center. “We’ve also seen fewer low birth rate babies, children are more likely to be immunized on a regular schedule and over 90 percent have health insurance and a source of medical care.”


Teresa Stewart, Teen Pregnancy Program coordinator, added, “Because of our emphasis on continuing education, we also have seen a higher rate of teens who stay in school and go on to graduate. This year we anticipate more then 20 of our participants will reach their educational goals.“

 

More than 800,000 individuals took the National Day Quiz in 2006. A survey of some of the teens the participated in the 2006 National Day indicates:


– 83 percent said the quiz made them think about what they might do in such situations;


– 69 percent said the quiz make the risks of sex and teen pregnancy seem more real to them;


– 59 percent said they’d talk to their friends about the situations described in the quiz; and


– 58 percent said they quiz make them think about things they hadn’t thought about before.


Lake Family Resource Center would like you to join us in supporting the National Day to prevent Teen Pregnancy.


For more information about National Day call LakeFRC at 262-1611 or visit www.teenpregnancy.org/national.


For more information on Teen Birth Rates please visit http://teenbirths.phi.org.


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