According to a recent study by a Community Scholars group, El Paso has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Texas. One of the main things that can be attributed to the high teen pregnancy rates in Texas is the fact that Texas is an abstinence-only state. School districts are mandated to teach the abstinence-only program first and then it's up to the discretion of each school if they want to pursue other means of sexual education, such as condoms and birth control pills. Statistically three in 10 girls get pregnant by age 18 in Texas, and Texas has the highest rate of repeat births among teen mothers in the U.S.
The Community Scholars researchers found that a common factor among teen pregnancies was the lack of communication between the teenagers and their parents. Teen pregnancy is also such a sensitive subject that it was hard for researchers to retreive the necessary data so they had to go about in other means. There also needs to be a re-examination of sexual education programs in Texas to combat the high teen pregnancy rates.
By Jacqueline Morris
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