Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Sue Scheff: Teen Pregnancy Pact


Parenting years ago and having a teen get pregnant was, in many families, humiliating and shameful to the family. Today teens are having babies and some are not considering the consequences, or maybe are considering them however don't realize the "real life" situation rather than what they read.

January 23rd, Saturday night, Lifetime Network will premier, "The Pregnancy Pact" at 9:00pm ET. Inspired by a true story, this movie depicts a fictional pregnancy pact between a group of teenagers. The film explores the costs of teen pregnancy and was prompted by the news reports from June 2008. Time Magazine ran a story about this pregnancy pact in a school where the teen pregnancies rose to 18 girls.

The discussion of birth control is started by the school nurse who tries to convince the school to provide contraception to students to address the pregnancy epidemic but is met with great opposition from the school and community.

According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy:

  • Three in 10 girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once by the age of 20.
  • Six in 10 teens who have had sex say that they wish they had waited.
  • Half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned - about 3 million each year.
  • One out of 10 children in the United States is born to a teen mother.
Lifetime Networks is proud to partner with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing teen pregnancy and unplanned pregnancy among single, young adults.

Additional information and resources are available at http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/ .

Parenting teens is challenging today, between the technology and peer pressure, it almost seems impossible to keep up. Teen pregnancy was an issue many years ago, and still is today. The difference is we have much more awareness, education and information to help our teens understand the consequences as well as the dangers of unprotected sex.

Be an educated parent, you will have safer and healthier teens.

Watch video and read more Examiner.

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