October is ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ Month

By Cara Kelly
Wednesday, Oct. 1 marks the start of “Let’s Talk About Sex Month,” an initiative of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) to encourage parents to talk to their teenagers about responsible sexual relations. Originating in North Carolina, the campaign has grown to a national level.

APPCNC will be launching billboards and signs on buses across the state to highlight the need of addressing teen pregnancy.

Although teen pregnancy rates are lower than the historic high in 1992, 19,000 teens are still affected each year.

“Let’s talk month highlights the importance of communicating with children before they begin engaging in risky behavior,” executive director of APPCNC Kay Phillips said.Ê “Every 28 minutes a North Carolina teen girl becomes pregnant.Ê We need to speak to our children and let them know that we’d like them to wait until they’re older to have sex, but if they’re going to be sexually active, we need to give them the information they need to prevent a pregnancy, as well as potentially deadly sexually transmitted infections.”

The campaign would also like to remind parents that although their teens may be learning about pregnancy from other outlets, it is not always the information they might want their children to hear.

“Recent high profile pregnancies, such as Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin, only serve to remind us that while our children might be exposed to a lot of information about sex from the media. It’s not always the best information. Parents must take the responsibility of educating their children and schools must reinforce that message with education, not ideology,” Phillips said.Ê

Statistics for teen pregnancy for 2007 were released recently by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

North Carolina’s teen pregnancy rates have remained steady over the past four years, declining 36 percent from the peak in 1992.

The pregnancy rate for 2007 in North Carolina teens aged 15 to 19 was 63 in 1,000. Yet, 29 percent of those pregnancies were to girls who had been pregnant at least once before.

There were 404 girls age 10 to 14 years old who became pregnant in North Carolina last year.

Although $11 million dollars has been spent on sex education, with a strict concentration on an “abstinence until marriage” ideology, no progress has been made in the reduction of teen pregnancy rates.

“If we are truly interested in reducing teen pregnancy, we should spend that money on effective, scientifically evaluated programs,” Phillips said. “We advocate a simple three-step plan that will give our youth the education they deserve.”

The APPCNC’s three-step plan includes a move away from the Title V Federal Abstinence Until Marriage funds and a replacement with funding for education that emphasizes abstinence but also gives teens information on contraception and sexually transmitted infections for when they do decide to be sexually active.

The second step of the campaign’s plan also encourages an increase in funding and support for teen parenting programs that assist teens in becoming better parents and continuing their education. The third step urges increased funding for school based health centers.

APPCNC believes in a cooperative approach to preventing teen pregnancy between public agencies, private organizations and community volunteers. The campaign has been working in North Carolina since 1985.

For more information regarding the campaign, visit www.appccnc.org. Parents can contact the campaign at nc4facts@appcnc.org or by calling (919) 226-1880.

More information on state and county teen pregnancy rates can be viewed at www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/data/pregnancies/2007.