[ernie]

Originally Posted by HOZ

No Thor...

Most don't teach sex-ed at all yet the USA is only slightly behind wonderful Canada and Euro-wonderful Britain.

That said....wasn't Obama the offspring of a teenage pregnancy? Maybe if Europe stopped aborting they would be so stupid and have better leaders?

Slightly behind? 2.5 times the teenage birth rate of Canada. Everything I've ever read shows the abortion rate is the USA the highest among countries as well.

Here's the Unicef report from 2001.

http://www.unicef-irc.org/publicatio.../repcard3e.pdf

Combined abortion and birth Data in that report is for 1996 but is likely reflective of the 2001 truth. The birth rate is over 55 per 1000 women under 20 for the US and an abortion rate of 30 per 1000 women under 20. Other than Hungary there was no country looked at that had an abortion rate in the 30's. The next highest was 24 in the Australia.

A combined 85 per 1000 pregnancy rate for women under 20 in the US. The UK was at 50 and canada 44. Pretty big difference. I wouldn't say "slightly" at all but damn huge. Not as big as compared to japan or Italy (totals below 13) but still significant.

The trend of numbers holds if you split the age group up even further.

The biggest reason for teenage pregnancies is not the watching of TV shows but as the article indicates the lack of communication between parent and child and the lack of information many kids get on how to prevent pregnancy (and STDs).