Preventing Teen Pregnancy: Start Early

Parents Should Talk To Kids Early And Often About Real Life

(CBS)  Teen pregnancy is on the rise for the first time in 15 years. Some are wondering if the celebrity baby boom among young stars in Hollywood is playing a role. Fans may look up to new moms like Nicole Richie and Halle Berry, but the estimated 750,000 pregnant teens across the country can't afford the nannies and designer baby clothes the celebrity moms have.

Sarah Brown, from the National Campaign To Prevent Teen And Unplanned Pregnancy told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen that parents have to help kids filter out the images they see in the media, by beginning the conversation early in their child's life.

"The celebrity glitz and the coolness of it all can be confusing to young girls," she said. "They may think that maybe they can have a bit of Hollywood, too, if they have a little bump. Parents have to be the filter, they have to sit down with sons and daughters and say 'you don't live in Hollywood and you're not going to raise your child in Hollywood. ... It's fun to read about, but it's not you.'"

Brown said that reality sets in when the teen mother's education has been interrupted, and she realizes that the child's father is no longer around after the first few months.

"I think they hope sometimes (the men will stay). They engage in magical thinking," she said. "Parents need constantly over the 18 years to be talking about the seriousness of pregnancy, the importance of education, and the simple fact that babies need adult parents."

The conversation has to begin early with both girls and boys.

"It's an 18-year conversation. It's not one awkward Tuesday night at the kitchen table," said Brown. "It's a long conversation about respect for relationships, about what children need, not just what adolescents want. It's fathers as well as mothers and it's for boys as well as girls."

According to Brown, happily ever after rarely happens for teenagers who have children out of wedlock.

"They are likely to remain single parents," Brown said. "Even if they do get married they probably will not have a stable marriage. They're probably not going to have a very good job because they haven't been able to complete their education. In this economy with oil prices apparently going higher and higher, the need for education, two and four years and beyond has never been greater. So anything that gets in the way of that risks poverty. And that means the child is raised in a tough environment."

[francineny1]

See, this is why I recommended education. Not only did you initially miss the point of the article - which had nothing to do with abortion - but you also missed the point of my response to you. I will put it in the most basic terms I can. The article was about preventing pregnancies before they happened. My question was about whether you or anyone else could argue with a straight face that teen pregnancy was a good idea.

I get that you''ve got strong views, but knock it off already. Not every discussion is about abortion. I''m really sorry I tried to have a normal conversation. It is beyond clear that you''re not capable of it.

[horrorfied3]

Surprised to see how perfectly formed and beautiful they must have been before being so coldly mutilated by medically trained people who should have used their knowledge to protect these children.

[horrorfied3]

You bet that is what they mean! OMG!

[ellianne10]

Is THIS what you mean by "choice"?

Testimony of Former Abortion Provider Beverly McMillan, M.D.

After it was all over, I would leave my patient on the table and I would go over to the suction bottle and I would take the little stockinette out and go outside the room to a sink where I would open the stockinette up, and I personally would pick through it with a forceps and I would have to identify four extremities, and a spine and a skull and the placenta. If I didn''t find that, I would have to go back in that room and scrape and suction some more, or else my patients would be showing up in 48 or 72 hours, just like those women at Cook County with an infected incomplete abortion.

Standing at that sink, I guess I just started seeing these bodies for the first time. I don''t know what I did before that. I think I just counted. I was cool. Blood didn''t make me sick. I could handle all the guts and gore of medicine just fine. But I started seeing this for the first time and it started bothering me.

[ellianne10]

Is ThIS what you mean?

Testimony of former abortion provider Dr. McArthur Hill

She has another sign which she has used which is extremely effective. This sign is visible from a very long way away. This is Baby Choice. Most of you involved in the Pro-Life Movement have seen Baby Choice. On the reverse side is a tiny hand on Jeannie''s palm, a 17-week baby that was aborted, and, of course, the gold on black background, the word, "Victim." This sign is very, very visible. I would certainly encourage any of you to utilize the same techniques. We have a few of these signs for sale if you are interested in using them.

[ellianne10]

Dr. Sally Dorfman reported on the use of ultrasound during abortion at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association of 1986. She recommended that it be used in all abortions performed after 12 weeks to accurately assess fetal age, as a teaching tool, and as a means of enhancing safety. It is interesting that they are doing all of these things to enhance safety when it''s such a safe procedure before they started using it. It is interesting also that she has warned against letting the patients see the image on the screen as "seeing a blown-up moving image of the embryo she is carrying can be distressing to a woman who is about to undergo an abortion." She stressed that the screen should be turned away from the patient. She also addressed its effect on staff members and stated they may need opportunities for venting their feelings and for reconfirming their priorities. What they really need to do is to look at the moving image on the screen and realize that they are about to take the life of a living human being.

[ellianne10]

Is this what you mean by "choice"?
Testimony of former abortion provider Deborah Henry

I have been there, and I have seen these totally formed babies as early as 10 weeks, a couple of inches long with a leg missing, or with their head off. These are things that I have to live with now. I know the Lord has forgiven me, but I can never erase those things from my mind. The sounds of those bones breaking, The sight of those babies. It seems like the longer I go on working with the Pro-Life people, the more it is affecting me. I can understand the reality of a baby inside of you--a full baby growing.

There are a few more experiences that I want to go into before I forget. There was one incident of a baby who was about 16 weeks. One of the girls had called me into the lab as she was cleaning up, and on the end of the cannula, which was the instrument at the end of the hose, was a little baby''s foot. It was about half an inch long. This foot was perfectly formed. I couldn''t believe it. I was so amazed by the sight of it. It was all black and blue. When you drop something on your foot and your foot becomes bruised, it is usually because of pain. This baby''s body was completely ripped apart because of the abortion.

...continued....

[ellianne10]

In another incident, the hose popped off of the machine, and we had blood splattered all over us. This poor woman just lay there and cried. It was too late for any of us to do anything about it. That baby was dead.

I was told that one of the Pro-Life problems is that we talk too much about the babies being ripped apart. We show terrible pictures--we dwell on these too much. What are we supposed to do? This is the reality of abortion. Are we supposed to say, Oh, don''t go into that abortion--your fetus, or tissues, will become deceased? It doesn''t make sense. You tell them the truth--the facts. We are not there to lie to them. I am there to tell them the truth. Babies are being ripped up. Yes, babies do look like this after an abortion. And yes, it does hurt your baby, and most of all, it does affect the woman.

[ellianne10]

Why I no longer do abortions

By: Dr. George Flesh
(Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1991)

I believe that tearing a developed fetus apart, limb by limb, simply at the mother''s request is an act of depravity that society should not permit. We cannot afford such a devaluation of human life, nor the desensitization of medical personnel that it requires. This is not based on what the fetus might feel, but on what we should feel in watching an exquisite, partly formed human being, being dismembered, whether one believes that man is created in God''s image or not. I wish everybody could witness a second-trimester abortion before developing an opinion about it.

[ellianne10]

Everyone has seen a surgical procedure on TV. Lets see the surgical abortion! It''s such a legal right and choice. Lets see it, CBS! Flaunt your Pro-Abort murder mentality in reality TV.