USA continues to win the gold medal in the Teen Birth Olympics

[Stephen Bezruchka]

You might have been concerned with the recent drop in teen births in the
US that we might lose our grasp on the Gold.  Not to worry.  Save the
Children (USA) issued their report this week giving us the Gold yet again.

The State of the World's Mothers 2004 is available at:
http://www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2004/images/pdf/SOWM_2004_final.pdf

>From the executive summary- "Children Having Children:  A Snapshot

1 in every 10 births worldwide is to a mother who is still herself a
child.

Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death
for young women aged 15 to 19 in the developing world.

Girls in their teens are twice as likely to die from pregnancy and
childbirth-related causes compared with older women.

Research suggests that very young mothers - aged 10 to 14 - have maternal
mortality rates five times higher than women aged 20 to 24.

Babies born to girls in their teens face a risk of dying before age 1 that
is 50 percent higher than babies born to women in their twenties.

Worldwide, an estimated 70,000 girls and 1 million infants born to young
mothers die each year due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth.

Educated girls tend to marry later, have fewer children, and raise
healthier, better nourished children.

115 million primary school-aged children worldwide are not now in school,
60 percent of them girls.

Birth rates for teenage girls in the United States have declined in recent
years, but they remain much higher than in any other industrialized
country."

AND REGARDING THE US:

"6. In the industrialized world, the United States has by far the highest
rate of early motherhood. Although the adolescent birth rate in the United
States has fallen over the past decade, it is still significantly higher
than other industrialized nations - about two-and-a-half times that of the
United Kingdom, more than 10 times that of the Netherlands or Japan, and
over 17 times the birth rate of the Republic of Korea. States with large
rural populations, above-average poverty rates and lower-than-average
education levels have the worst records for children having children.
These include: Arizona,Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas."

CHECK OUT the League Table on Page 17 showing the situation in poor
countries, and that on Page 18 showing teen births in the industrialized
world.  We have twice the rates of the silver and bronze winners, so there
is little chance of losing this stellar showing in the near future.  Our
selected president must be delighted to see his great state doing so well.

POWER of PRIDE!

Stephen