Learning to ‘Think Twice’

in response to latinamom
I think I agree with your general sentiment, and that it might not be the traditional latino culture mentioned in the article, but not with characterizing it as "morals and family values". To say that is to imply that those teenage mothers and fathers lack those. It's not that they're bad people, they just might be naive. If anything, it's not that they're naive, just foolish or uneducated as to the dangers. It's that latter that has to be helped.

in response to latinamom
I think I agree with your general sentiment, and that it might not be all be owing to traditional latino culture mentioned in the article, but not with characterizing it as "morals and family values". To say that is to imply that those teenage mothers and fathers lack those. So what, you're saying they're bad people? They're just naive, foolish or uneducated as to the dangers. Why? They're not being told what they need to know.

These terrifying statistics are in part yet another unfortunate consequence of Bush's "abstinence only" campaign. I'm glad to see that someone is finally taking the initiative to publicly identify that despite what old men in Congress think, teens will still have sex. It is only when we focus on offering each teen culturally competent options (abstinence, contraceptives, etc.) that we begin to see declines in teen pregnancy rates. Offering

Wow..finally someone taking notice.. Coming from a latino family and yes, even becoming a "statistic" by the age of 17 has been a hard lesson.. Now at the age of 35 with an 18 year old college bound son, I have fought long and hard to not allow my son to have those "typical" latino views of sex and women.. It is hard fight but is worth it.... Someone has to tell these kids that having a baby isn't fun, or cute.. and that it will cost you big $$ and cause you to be connected to someone through a child that you might not think is so HOT the way you did when you were young and dumb...