Let’s think this through: So, you’re concerned about pregnant teens in Colorado and you want to express that thought, so you . . . call them “sluts”?
That was how state Rep. Larry Liston chose to contribute to the dialogue when he heard a presentation on teen pregnancy rates during a Republican legislative caucus lunch last week.
How middle school of him.
Liston’s comments about the good ol’ days, when pregnant teens were shunned, shamed and sent away, projected an insufferable rectitude.
By Thursday afternoon, Liston issued an apology for his derogatory language.
Nevertheless, the debate would be elevated by a healthy injection of facts and compassion. Teen pregnancy is a serious problem around the country and particularly in Colorado.
Here, the teen pregnancy rate is 82 per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19. Nationally, the rate is 84 per 1,000. Every day, six babies are born to Colorado teen mothers ages 15 to 17, according to the Colorado Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention.
The causes are varied, but like many public health concerns, teen pregnancy is disproportionately higher among minorities.
The Guttmacher Institute has found a particularly distressing correlation between teen pregnancy and sexual abuse. Abused adolescents were more likely than others to engage in risky behavior and had the highest odds of pregnancy.
While pregnancy rates have declined significantly since hitting a peak in the early 1990s, Colorado hasn’t declined as quickly as the rest of the country.
Out of the 50 states, Colorado is ranked 43rd in the rate of decline in teen pregnancy, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
A recent study in the American Journal of Public Health said 86 percent of the recent decline in teen pregnancy rates is due to improved contraceptive use, while the rest is attributable to teens waiting to have sex.
The numbers buoy the wisdom of the state legislature’s move last year to pass science-based standards for sex education.
With the passage of House Bill 1292, Colorado school children will learn about abstinence, birth control and a host of diseases including the latest information about AIDS, hepatitis C and how the human papilloma virus can cause cervical cancer.
As studies and numbers show, the problem of teen pregnancy has been avidly studied and documented. While answers remain elusive, one thing is certain. Public name-calling isn’t going to help these troubled teens.
