While I was in high school, there were an average of 7-8 pregnancies a year.  While in college, because of it being an American Baptist school, if someone got pregnant, it was covered up quickly by marriage.  I can only think of 1 pregnancy for sure that was conceived out of wedlock, and they got married shortly after finding out they were pregnant.

As far as when my son/future kids get old enough, we are going to promote abstinence with the knowledge that it might not last until marriage.  Both my husband and I waited for sex until our wedding night.  It was really nice to be able to not give into the world and the pressures of "do what feels good for that moment" and wait.

I know that not everyone has the same thoughts as I do or even the same level of determination, but I made a promise to myself to wait to have sex on my wedding night and I stuck to it.  I wish there were more people out there who would do that.

As far as the girls who made the pact...only two words come to mind...tisk-tisk.  I understand that things happen when you are active in high school, little surprises come along that are truly surprises, but to purposefully seek out to get pregnant while in high school is just plain dumb in my opinion.

I understand that talking to your children about sex is important and all parents should do so. Like you said that isn't always possible, but where I come from there are plenty of places for teens to get free contraceptives. Not everyone can get birth control, but they can definitely get condoms without consent. They aren't 100% effective and you have to know how to use them, but doesn't health class or sex education already cover that? A lot of teens are making their own money and if they really don't want to suffer from any bad consequences while having sex, then they should buy condoms! Like someone else said, we want schools to do just about everything. Some schools also provide condoms and if you really want another contraceptive then you should really attempt to go to someone responsible who can help you.

My mom sat all five of her children down and gave them the talk. She said "Ideally, I'd like for you all to wait until you're married to have sex, but that isn't always realistic when you're young. If you have sex, you can come to me. You had better use protection because if you don't and wind up with a baby, I will NOT take care of it. If you're responsible enough to lay down then you'd better be responsible enough to get up and and raise the product of your actions." We were pretty young and we already receiving sex education in 5th grade.

That's how it should be.  While by no means am I trying to condone teenage sex, I realize that it happens more often than not and I wish for those teens to be prepared both physically and emotionally.  Abstinence only education fails so often, it uses a scare-tactic to keep kids out of bed.  If we tell our kids that contraceptives aren't effective, they will have sex anyway but if we arm them with the right information, they can make better choices.

@NurseJenna - What I am saying is the so-called answer to teenage pregnancy doesn't start when parents hand over a condom as a bandaid for the deeper issue of why kids are having sex at a younger age.  Condoms are more available today then they were when I was in Jr. High - but have you been in a middle school lately?  Do you know what those kids are doing now?  As for the babies you are delivering for young girls second time around - I bet they got plenty of info on birth control, probably even were offered free birth control pills.  They still got pregnant again.  Why?  Because just offereing birth control isn't the answer.  If it was, you would see things getting better, not worse.

I thought that it turned out that the pact wasn't real or something?

It definitely would not have hurt to have a jar of condoms with some pamphlets at the health center desk. That's the way we do it here in college and things seem to be working fine.

Hear, hear!

I wish more people would think about this issue in this way.

Nurse Jenna, the "pregnancy pact" was an exaggeration unwittingly spewed out by the principal of the school when confronted by the news media. There is no evidence that the teenage mothers-to-be all agreed to intentionally get pregnant and raise their babies together; rather, the situation was one in which the girls, upon realizing that they were pregnant, decided they would come together to support one another in raising their children.

@Mrs_LeFevour@xanga - Again, I'm right with you in what you teach, but the reality speaks otherwise.  We as a society can address it in a practical way, or turn a blind eye and pretend that a "good-talking to" will fix an epidemic problem....and by problem, I mean unprotected sex.  Again, I am not going to judge who should and should not be having sex.

@wuhBANG@xanga - Where did you read that?

@Mrs_LeFevour@xanga - My question to you is what you mean by "widely available"?  That condoms can be purchased at the drugstore?   Even as a money-making, driving adult, I would not say that getting birth-control is a "simple" matter. Teenagers are not adults, but they are sexual. It is more difficult for them to get condoms and even more so oral contraceptives. In many countries oral contraceptives are over-the-counter.  It has been determined (for better or worse and I have mixed feelings) that it is by prescription only here.  This is a good protective measure in that birth control pills can be dangerous for people with some health conditions. However, I believe they remain prescriptive for liability reasons more than anything else. I would highly question the "ease" at which they can be obtained for the average teenager.  This involves at the very least a clinician appointment and a pharmacy visit and not until you are in college is there a health center that provides these services.  So is 17 or 18 the magical number in college where we now approve that they can obtain these services with ease and  guilt-free?   Seems arbitary since there are lots of 17 yr olds still in high school who could probably use the same resources and would benefit from having the same availability.  Or is it an "out of sight, out of mind" issue?  So long as we don't know what our kids are doing in college, it is a more palatable idea to think that contraceptives are available to them, even though they are still teens?

People can raise there kids a certain way and hope for the best, but if your child decides to have sex without your knowledge, wouldn't you feel better knowing they had somewhere to go where they could easily get protection? Lots of parents think their teenagers are not sexually active, but a lot of them are wrong.

Ehh, kids are going to have sex anyways.  Plus condoms are expensive.  Heck, i'd be glad if someone gave my kid condoms for free.

I have to agree with you here. Most kids are going to experiment with sex, whether their parents want them to or not. Why is it wrong to give them protection? People assume that kids will eventually go to their parents, or that parents will go to their kids. This is not always true, or even, often true.
I'm of the belief that we live in a culture of shame, where anything about body image, sex and sexuality, or nudity is taboo. If you're embarrassed to bring it up with another, ashamed for doing or thinking something, why would you bring it up with someone else? If you believe you will be punished or ridiculed, why would you take it to someone you believe is in power over you?
And saying that teens shouldn't have access to BC because they are not mature enough for sex doesn't stop anyone from having it. I know people in their twenties and thirties who aren't "mature" enough for sex - they're merely the legal age. How is this more right?
The limited knowledge given from many sex ed classes is not enough. Abstinence only education is a pathetic joke. Parents aren't doing their part. And teens aren't talking to the adults they should. So teens talk to other teens, and have unprotected sex because they think that they have no other choice. What more do you expect?