Dubai Telegraph - Obama sex education program drove lower teen birth rates in US: study

EUR -
AED 4.049778
AFN 78.834299
ALL 99.033342
AMD 431.456343
ANG 1.973823
AOA 1005.540147
ARS 1184.510488
AUD 1.740106
AWG 1.984619
AZN 1.871047
BAM 1.951157
BBD 2.225918
BDT 133.95119
BGN 1.953417
BHD 0.415629
BIF 3226.660051
BMD 1.102566
BND 1.473074
BOB 7.618042
BRL 6.190801
BSD 1.102437
BTN 94.108603
BWP 15.256919
BYN 3.607729
BYR 21610.297969
BZD 2.214448
CAD 1.554541
CDF 3167.672699
CHF 0.949657
CLF 0.027281
CLP 1046.908381
CNY 8.028391
CNH 8.030442
COP 4581.504452
CRC 555.45727
CUC 1.102566
CUP 29.218005
CVE 110.006211
CZK 25.045922
DJF 195.947771
DKK 7.461959
DOP 69.623267
DZD 146.912551
EGP 55.769964
ERN 16.538493
ETB 145.130438
FJD 2.566609
FKP 0.849767
GBP 0.842206
GEL 3.042781
GGP 0.849767
GHS 17.089472
GIP 0.849767
GMD 78.830087
GNF 9541.515201
GTQ 8.509592
GYD 230.665979
HKD 8.575705
HNL 28.207398
HRK 7.54001
HTG 144.267713
HUF 403.661068
IDR 18465.889357
ILS 4.082247
IMP 0.849767
INR 94.030872
IQD 1444.233926
IRR 46431.844181
ISK 144.314781
JEP 0.849767
JMD 173.672773
JOD 0.781606
JPY 161.04578
KES 142.506807
KGS 95.60528
KHR 4409.646484
KMF 500.014042
KPW 992.369183
KRW 1600.661596
KWD 0.339262
KYD 0.918627
KZT 552.612033
LAK 23885.559894
LBP 98786.765454
LKR 327.39557
LRD 220.466371
LSL 20.781097
LTL 3.255591
LVL 0.666932
LYD 5.33219
MAD 10.487244
MDL 19.686991
MGA 5027.940557
MKD 61.511679
MMK 2314.787019
MNT 3851.769118
MOP 8.833576
MRU 43.813776
MUR 50.023376
MVR 16.990372
MWK 1911.842309
MXN 22.023316
MYR 4.897654
MZN 70.451818
NAD 20.780251
NGN 1695.23982
NIO 40.564638
NOK 11.404074
NPR 150.576289
NZD 1.901293
OMR 0.424466
PAB 1.102556
PEN 4.048086
PGK 4.549174
PHP 62.857624
PKR 309.248804
PLN 4.227851
PYG 8845.546281
QAR 4.019435
RON 4.978193
RSD 117.17297
RUB 92.685108
RWF 1572.964625
SAR 4.136492
SBD 9.180809
SCR 15.773594
SDG 662.092022
SEK 10.787111
SGD 1.473199
SHP 0.866444
SLE 25.171542
SLL 23120.263604
SOS 630.003648
SRD 40.298877
STD 22820.894741
SVC 9.647255
SYP 14336.339478
SZL 20.788701
THB 37.64133
TJS 12.001035
TMT 3.870007
TND 3.373498
TOP 2.582323
TRY 41.871279
TTD 7.474586
TWD 36.451059
TZS 2924.510568
UAH 45.517981
UGX 4017.56488
USD 1.102566
UYU 46.573677
UZS 14239.435486
VES 77.098718
VND 28451.721382
VUV 136.24344
WST 3.123386
XAF 654.272445
XAG 0.034516
XAU 0.000355
XCD 2.97974
XDR 0.825967
XOF 654.373081
XPF 119.331742
YER 270.845622
ZAR 20.688194
ZMK 9924.417531
ZMW 30.622794
ZWL 355.025874
  • RBGPF

    -0.2800

    67.72

    -0.41%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    9.8

    +0.2%

  • CMSC

    -0.2400

    22.26

    -1.08%

  • RELX

    0.4600

    51.44

    +0.89%

  • SCS

    -0.7200

    10.74

    -6.7%

  • CMSD

    -0.1600

    22.67

    -0.71%

  • NGG

    3.6100

    69.39

    +5.2%

  • GSK

    1.3700

    39.01

    +3.51%

  • RIO

    -1.4700

    58.43

    -2.52%

  • VOD

    0.2500

    9.37

    +2.67%

  • BTI

    1.6700

    41.92

    +3.98%

  • JRI

    -0.2200

    12.82

    -1.72%

  • BCC

    -7.4400

    94.63

    -7.86%

  • BCE

    0.8400

    22.66

    +3.71%

  • BP

    -2.4700

    31.34

    -7.88%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    73.92

    +2.3%

Obama sex education program drove lower teen birth rates in US: study
Obama sex education program drove lower teen birth rates in US: study

Obama sex education program drove lower teen birth rates in US: study

An Obama-era sex education program that was criticized by conservatives succeeded in reducing teen birth rates in parts of the US that implemented it, a large study said Monday.

Text size:

Teen births are higher in the United States than in any other G7 country, and the topic of whether to teach adolescents about the use of contraceptives has remained heated among academics, politicians and the public.

A 1996 law allocated federal funding to abstinence-only education, but in 2010 then-president Barack Obama initiated two more comprehensive sex-education programs: Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (TPP).

These programs provided more information about sex, contraception, and reproductive health compared to abstinence-only education, which research has shown has no effect on teen birth rates.

"We looked at 'Where did this funding go? And what happens to teen birth rates in the places that it went?'" Nicholas Mark, a researcher at New York University (NYU) and lead author of the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) told AFP.

Mark and his co-author, NYU professor Lawrence Wu focused on TPP, because this program's funding was allocated at the county rather than state level. This made it possible to draw comparisons between counties of similar income and poverty levels.

The researchers had access to public data on which counties received TPP funding, and a restricted birth certificate database that gave them birth rates in counties, as well as allowing them to capture the age of mothers at the time of birth and where they lived.

They examined teenage birth rates in 55 US counties from 1996-2009, the years before they received TPP funding, and during the years they received this funding, 2010-2016.

They also compared the birth rates in those 55 counties to more than 2,800 counties without the funding in the years before and after TPP was implemented.

This method allowed them to make the truest comparison possible, by disentangling the specific impact of the sex education program from an overall trend of declining teen birth rates in recent years.

Birth rates among 14 to 19 year olds in counties that received TPP funding dropped by approximately three percent in the years studied -- both compared to the period before they received funding, and compared to unfunded counties.

The paper is the first national effort to study the question, and its methods demonstrated cause-and-effect, rather than simply correlation, according to the authors.

Support for comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only teaching remains a fault line in the country's ongoing culture wars.

The administration of former president Donald Trump attempted to reallocate funding back towards abstinence programs, but faced opposition in court by the reproductive health group Planned Parenthood.

Many teen pregnancies and subsequent births are unwanted by the mothers, and therefore can be affected by access to abortion.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court may soon be poised to overturn the ruling that made abortion a constitutional right in the United States 50 years ago, paving the way for state-level bans.

A.El-Ahbaby--DT