teen pregnancy

[tomato1236]

Also, for religious kids, carrying condoms around pretty much indicates that your "sin" is premeditated. It's much easier to pretend, or even convince yourself, that you just got carried away in the heat of the moment; at least you didn't plan to sin. I have a relative who claims she just had one beer, and it made her so drunk that she doesn't remember having sex at all.

That must have been one huge bottle.

 

[Smoke]

Catholicism seems to correlate with less religiosity in general. The more religious states are also more Protestant.

One confounding factor is that Catholic women have more abortions than Protestant women.

I think a lot of Catholics, Orthodox and Lutherans are active in their religion because it's part of their cultural heritage, not because they believe everything it says. It's more like, I'm Italian, and being Catholic goes along with that, or I'm Greek, and being Orthodox goes along with that. I know a Serbian-American woman who says she'd rather not go to Liturgy at all than go to a church where the Liturgy is celebrated in Greek or English, and English is her native language. It's just not the same for her. And I know a number of older Catholics who don't like the English Mass, not because they're traditionalists, but because it's not the Mass they grew up with. If you come from a cultural heritage that's strongly identified with a particular religious tradition, that religious tradition may seem very homey and gemütlich to you even if you don't believe a word of it. I've mentioned on RF before that I used to work with a guy who was an outspoken atheist and had nothing but contempt for the Catholic Church, but when he had kids he wanted them brought up Catholic, because he was brought up Catholic, and he couldn't imagine having kids who didn't share that cultural identity with him.

Also, Catholicism and Orthodoxy place less emphasis on faith, i.e., the kind of faith that means intellectual assent. Most Catholics and Orthodox don't feel the slightest obligation to believe everything the Pope or the bishop says they should believe. My brother left the Orthodox Church in part because he was fed up with the fasting rules, and he was dumbfounded when everybody looked at him like he was crazy and said, "But you don't really have to do all that." One of my koumbari got very upset because the bishop told him he couldn't take Communion if he used birth control, and the universal response to his problem was, "What possessed you to ask the bishop about it?"

To Protestants this looks hypocritical. To Catholics and Orthodox it just seems pragmatic. Until I started talking to people online, I don't think I'd ever met more than three or four Catholics in my whole life who really believed everything the Church teaches, especially on the subject of birth control.

 

[Smoke]

That must have been one huge bottle.

Yeah, well, her grandmother believed her and I guess that was the important thing.

 

[Smoke]

States with the lowest minority rates GENERALLY have a lower teen pregnancy rate, California excluded. And there are several predominately white states which also have a higher than average teen pregnancy rate - KY, WV and IN for example.

Po country white folks is a minority, too.

Seriously, I think it has to do with education and opportunity. Better-educated people and their children are more likely to avoid many of the negative aspects of life, including the more alarming forms of Christianity. You hardly ever see a serpent handler with a Ph.D., or a physicist at the Pentecostal Holiness Church. On the other hand poor and uneducated people are more likely to be attracted to Dispensationalism and other aberrations within Christianity. That would also explain why Mormons do better by most measures despite being unusually religious. In general, they tend to be financially successful and better educated than average.

 

[tomato1236]

Po country white folks is a minority, too.

Seriously, I think it has to do with education and opportunity. Better-educated people and their children are more likely to avoid many of the negative aspects of life, including the more alarming forms of Christianity. You hardly ever see a serpent handler with a Ph.D., or a physicist at the Pentecostal Holiness Church. That would also explain why Mormons do better by most measures despite being unusually religious. In general, they tend to be financially successful and better educated than average.

Another two points for the mormons! Education and success!

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

The correlation is amazing.

But there are some odd points where the correlation is lacking:

- Nevada and Alaska both have very low religiosity and significantly higher than average teen pregnancy rates.
- North Dakota has is one of the 10 lowest states for teen pregnancy, but it ranks as "more religious".

And I think your life expectancy map shows that wealthy and religious is just as good as wealthy and non-religious. It seems to me that it's the poorer areas, religious or not, that have lower life expectancy.

Also, there's Utah: for whatever reason, whenever people try establish some sort of correlation between religion and health or the like, Mormons always end up being outliers who are as healthy as atheists.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

That would also explain why Mormons do better by most measures despite being unusually religious. In general, they tend to be financially successful and better educated than average.

I'm sure that abstaining from alcohol helps quite a bit just by itself, too.

 

[sojourner]

Yes, on all the maps, Utah is the same color as the less religious states. Interesting.

Psssst! [whispers] It's a conspiracy!

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Psssst! [whispers] It's a conspiracy!

Are you trying to imply that Mormons are secretly atheists?

 

[sojourner]

I wonder if it has anything to do with how fundamentalist the religion is?

 

[Kathryn]

Doubtful, seems more like ignorance than objective truth telling to me.....

Where are you cracker charts?

Sorry, but I couldn't find any white trash charts.

Are you accusing me of being racist?

These demographics are just truth - that doesn't mean you have to like it, any more than I like the FACT that teen pregnancy rates in general are higher in states with a higher percentage of practicing religious people.

My point is that there's more to this picture than religion OR race.

 

[tomato1236]

I wonder if it has anything to do with how fundamentalist the religion is?

No. If I had to guess, and I do, I would say it's the cultish brainwashing that occurs.

 

[Autodidact]

Trying to be somewhat objective, I think (a certain type of) religiosity is a factor, abstinence-only education is a factor, and poverty/ignorance is the biggest factor. All 3 contribute to high teen pregnancy rate.

 

[Kathryn]

I think it's a mix of prevalent cultural norms within the subcultures of race, religion, socioeconomic class, and educational class. Each of these cultural groups can overlap into other "historically incongruent" classes, due to the integration, mobility, and changing social values within our very diverse American society. But I agree with Auto that some types of religious cultures have an impact, as does the albeit rare abstinence-only educational model, and - perhaps most importantly - poverty and the subsequent problems caused by poverty. Certain minorities have a higher-than-average poverty rate and this creates educational problems as well -both of which contribute a lot to teen birth rates.

Also - many religious societies discourage abortion, and since the data in the OP discusses teen BIRTH rates (from my understanding), we can't ignore teen ABORTION rates when we look at teen PREGNANCY rates - which is why I included the chart on abortion rates.

I mean -we ARE talking about teen PREGNANCY rather than simply teen BIRTHS, right?

Teens receive 17% of abortions in the US.

Adolescents under 15 years obtained less than 1% of all abortions, but have the highest abortion ratio, 773 abortions for every 1,000 live births (CDC).

47% of women who have an abortion have had at least one abortion in the past.

Black women are more than 4.8 % more likely to have an abortion than non hispanic white women (and considering that their teen birth rate is much higher than other groups, this is ESPECIALLY alarming), Hispanic women are 2.7% more likely than non hispanic white women (and their teen pregnancy rate is a lot higher as well). Wow.

43% of women having an abortion identify themselves as protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic. The remaining 30% are a mixed bag of religions, or no religious affiliation.

Facts About Abortion: U.S. Abortion Statistics

Not trying to turn this into a discussion about abortion - just continuing to flesh out the picture of the issue of teen PREGNANCY.

 

[Kathryn]

The OP is misleading because it states "Teen pregnancy rates" when the chart used to show the data actually refers to teen BIRTH rates. With approximately 1.21 million abortions taking place each year in the US, and with 17% of those being performed on teens, that means that the actual rate of teen PREGNANCY is higher than the teen birth rate - by about 205,700.

That's why we need to also look at states with the highest ABORTION rates as well as the highest BIRTH rates to get a clearer picture of just how many teens are actually getting pregnant.

For instance, NY has the highest abortion rate - which means that more teens are actually getting pregnant, but having an abortion, than in many other states.

Make of it what you will. I'm just sayin'.

 

[Bismillah]

For instance, NY has the highest abortion rate - which means that more teens are actually getting pregnant, but having an abortion, than in many other states.

A very illuminating post Kathryn

 

[Kathryn]

A very illuminating post Kathryn

Thanks a lot, Abibi. I'm just trying to be objective!

 

[Autodidact]

 

[Kathryn]

Yes? I already posted this chart.

 

[Kathryn]

This is interesting data, but be sure you don't missapply it. You could look at a group of, say, oilfield workers, and realize that they have a higher rate of lung cancer, and you could conclude (falsely) that working in the oilfield causes lung cancer - when in reality a higher percentage of oilfield workers SMOKES and that's what's causing their lung cancer.

You can't get a clear picture of teen pregnancy, or religious views and applications, without looking closely at other demographics.

Here are some more interesting demographics maps - these demographics also play a part in the complex issue of teen pregnancy:

Interesting website on African American demographics:
Booker Rising: A Portrait Of Black America On The Eve Of The 2010 Census

By the way, Washington DC has the highest percentage of black population - 56 percent. It also has the highest rate of teen pregnancy.

Abortion rates by state (CA and LA do not report abortion rates). I know that not all of these abortions are performed on teens, but many are.

I am reposting this because it's convenient to show the various maps together. Seems to give more depth to the issue. I wish I was smart enough to superimpose these over each other.

I just think it's interesting that some of the states with the lowest teen birth rates have very high abortion rates. So...it's not certain that fewer teens are GETTING pregnant - only that fewer of them are giving birth.