Teen birth rates, however, have increased over the years. In fact, Mississippi's teen birth rate was sixty percent higher than the national average. However, the U.S. teen birth rate dropped nine percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching a historic low of 34.3 births per 1,000 teens aged fifteen to nineteen. It attributed the drop to the increased use of contraception. For example, thanks to birth control in schools, teen pregnancy is down twenty-seven percent in New York City. .
For every 1,000 girls between the ages of fifteen to nineteen, 72.6 got pregnant in 2010- down from 98.8 in 2001. There are now about 19,080 teen pregnancies a year in the city- down from 24,815 in 2001. Sexual activity has also dropped by twenty-six percent, from 50.9 percent to 37.8 percent, of public high school students. More girls were using the birth control methods being offered in school the last time they had sex-17.3 percent in 2009, up from 26.9 percent in 2011. In spite of the decline, the U.S. teen birth rate remains one of the highest among other industrialized countries, although, if more schools take note of the way contraception in New York schools has helped them then the U.S. might make their way back on track of reducing teen pregnancy rates. .
The counteract argument politicians will argue against these sane statistics are that we should not even have to have them if everyone just taught and preached the "abstinence only" factor. I don't know how abstinence education is going to prevent someone from having sex. Sure, you have the knowledge, but you still have to choose to practice it or not. Look at the Catholics; they have the bible yet their hypocrisy is seen every Saturday when they go to bars and then on Sunday they go pray on a pew. Rather than act self-righteous and drag teenagers into culture wars, people need to realize that when kids debate whether they should have sex, they focus on how it will affect their relationship, not on caring about all the "abstinence is the answer" preaches they receive from pointless talks that is honestly going in one ear and straight out the other.
