Pay Attention

Teenage Pregnancy has declined by 36% since its peak in 1990. Still, 750,000 girls, age 15 to 19, get pregnant every year. 33% of all teen pregnancies now end in abortion, a decline from a rate of 46%. (Statistics courtesy of the Guttmacher Institute, September 2006).

• Children who have been victims of abuse exhibit long-term and more frequent behavioral problems, particularly inappropriate sexual behaviors.

• An estimated 60% of teen first pregnancies are preceded by experiences of molestation, rape, or attempted rape. The average age of their offenders is 27 years. (Statistics courtesy of darkness2light.org).

Just how stupid do you have to be to get knocked up in 2007 when you're rich, famous, and constantly being watched? Being young doesn't explain a failure of this magnitude. What information, what lessons failed to be taught? The mechanics and consequences of pregnancy are obvious but only if they are taught! What moral values went unspoken? Or were all the adult care-takers around this child themselves manifesting inexcusable behaviors?

The usual excuses…poverty, lack of access to medical services, absence of education, ethnicity…do not apply to Jamie Lynn Spears. Her "delicate condition" says more about our shameless culture than it says about the "16-and-pregnant sit-com starlet, Jamie Lynn Spears.