ed with only fifteen percent in 1960. Of those who conceive, about half actually give birth while the others end in either miscarriage or abortion. And, approximately one-third of all abortions in the United States are performed on teenage girls (Kantrowitz, 1987, p. 54-55).
One of the grim realities of these statistics is that most are likely to come from low-income households, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and welfare. Further, a third of all teen mothers have a second child before they are twenty. In addition, since most usually do not have access to any prenatal care, they do not know about nutrition and their babies tend to be low in birthweight. This in turn can increase the risks of health and developmental problems. All of these factors combine to give America an unusually high infant- mortality rate: 10.8 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births (Kantrowitz, 1987, p. 55).
Though health practitioners, teachers and counselors are talking more about abstinence today to teens as a way to avoid pregnancy as well as diseases, most recognize that the realities of such a campaign are limited. Dr. Sheldon Landesman, an AIDS researcher, says: "After food and sleep, you are dealing with the third most powerful drive we have. And sex is the most powerful nonsurvival drive" (Kantrowitz, 1987, p. 56). A recent Harris poll of U.S. teenagers showed that more than half had intercourse by the time they were seventeen, primarily because of the pressure they felt from their peers (p. 56).
So what is to be done? It is apparent from the statistics that traditional forms of sex education in the home and school are not working. In fact, studies have shown that among some of the country's inner cities, there is far more fear of birth control than of pregnancy among sexually-active teenagers (Dash, 1990, p.
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