REPORT SHOWS RISE IN TEEN PREGNANCY, STDs

WASHINGTON, July 22 (LSN) – A U.S. Congressional Quarterly report indicates a significant increase in sexual diseases and births among unmarried teenagers, the National Center for Policy Analysis reported today. Furthermore, “the federal government is spending $39 billion a year to support families begun by unwed teen mothers, according to Advocates for Youth.” Experts say the trend reflects greater sexual activity at a younger age. Seventeen percent of 15-year-old girls were sexually active in 1995, compared to 3% in the 1950s.  Other stats: One million girls aged 15 to 19 get pregnant every year, and 76% of them are unwed. In 1996,  the percentage of these unwed teen-age mothers was nearly six times that of 1950. There are three million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among U.S. teens reported each year, a rate 50 to 100 times higher than in other industrialized countries. Advocates of sex education and abortion argue that this dilemma demonstrates the need for their services. Advocates of sexual abstinence programs, however, note that the rise in teen-age promiscuity, sexual disease, and abortion parallels the growth in liberal sex   education programs and liberalized abortion laws.  Obstetrician Joe McIlhaney Jr. of Texas also notes that despite the impressive claims made for condoms,  they don’t stop transmission of some sexually transmitted diseases, such as the rapidly spreading human papilloma virus.