Friday March 2 11:44 AM ET Dutch Offer Winning Formula to Cut Teenage Pregnancies By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - Sex education, free contraceptives and liberal attitudes toward sex are among the best ways to reduce soaring teenage pregnancy rates, a Dutch researcher said Friday. The Dutch should know. The tiny country better known for its cheese, windmills and canals has fewer pregnant teenagers than most Western countries. Less than one percent, or 10 per 1,000, 15-17 year-olds in the Netherlands get pregnant each year, compared to nearly five percent in Britain, which has the highest rate in Western Europe, and 99 per 1,000 in the United States. ``Teenage pregnancy seems virtually eliminated as a health and social problem in the Netherlands,'' Dr. Simone Buitendijk, of the Dutch Institute for Applied Scientific Research in Leiden, told Reuters. The Dutch have seen a steady drop in the number of young mothers for decades as teen pregnancies have been increasing in other countries. In the early 1970s four percent of live births in the Netherlands were to teenagers. By the late 1990s the figure had dropped to one percent. ``It's due to a whole mix of things. It is very hard to pinpoint what the major factor is. The liberal attitude is probably one very important determinant,'' she added in a telephone interview. While other countries have been expounding the joys of no sex, the Dutch have accepted that teens are sexually active and have introduced measures to deal with it. ``In Holland teens know about sexuality and about procreation, how it works and what you should do not to become pregnant. Their peers know and it is a very socially acceptable thing to prevent pregnancy,'' she added. Birth control pills are available at pharmacies and free through a National Sick Fund, a state-funded system that ensures low income people have medical care, and statistics show that Dutch teenagers are using them. In 1995, 70 percent of sexually active 18 year-olds were on the pill and 40 percent of students three or four years younger. Eighty-five percent of teens used a condom, the pill or both during their first sexual experience. Buitendijk, who will present the Dutch data at a meeting on child health in London, said condoms are popular among young teenagers but the pill gains preference as they get older. ``Factors that positively influence contraceptive behavior in Dutch teenagers are their sufficient knowledge of reproduction and contraception, the large amount of information available to them both in school and informally and the general permissive attitude the Dutch hold toward teen sexuality,'' she said. Proof that birth control is the key is supported by a drop in teenage abortions in the Netherlands but an increase in sexual activity. So more teens are having sex but fewer are getting pregnant or having abortions. ------------------ "You know what they say about the music business. Here today, gone TODAY! - Chris Rock at the MTV Music Video Awards
And they have Amsterdam to boot. You have to love the dutch. DaDakota ------------------ Go Jazz * http://bbs.clutchcity.net/ubb/Forum3/HTML/011403.html
When it comes to things like alcohol, soft-drug use, and sex, I've always thought America seemed socially backward in comparison to Europe. ------------------ "We got f*cking smashed every day. And then when we came here to Beverly Hills, we had drugs, we had chicks, we had orgies. I thought I'd died and gone to f*cking Rome" ---Ozzy Osbourne, on the early days of Black Sabbath
Jeff, you're the coolest guy on the planet. Save our Rockets, and great posts about sex ed. Wow. ------------------ Boston College - Big East -East Division Regular Season Champs Worst to First in 2001!
Don't worry everyone, I'm sure our government will learn from its peers and do something to fix our disastrous sex education plan. ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams and Lisa Malosky fan club. atheistalliance.org
The kids over there apparently don't have any more respect for their bodies than kids do here. They just have adults who encourage it. I wouldn't want my child living anywhere where there was a "permissive attitude toward teen sexuality". They're treating the symptoms, not the problem. If you recognize that kids are going to have sex no matter what, you also know that 'no matter what' means whether there's birth control around or not.
I don't know why everyone is hammering on the government. We need to encourage the parents to teach their kids about sex ed. ------------------ Nice guys finish last ... and im surely not going to finish last!
But Freak, you can't argue with the results... (also, when did this whole thing with teenagers "not respecting their bodies" start?) ------------------ "I don't want to join a club that accepts people like me as members."
TheFreak: Why are you labelling human sexuality as unhealthy? It's the Puritanical nature of US social policy that's the problem. Sex is a natural life-affirming act. Our Christian-paranoia on the subject has made it a dirty, closet thing... and caused irreparable harm. Sex is beautiful. We should make it safe as well. ------------------ Boston College - Big East -East Division Regular Season Champs Worst to First in 2001!
Haven, You call 14 year old girls having babies a beautiful thing? Or kids out sleeping with everyone and spreading diseases beautiful? Yes, it is beautiful when you share it with that special person. I will admit Christians have made it a 'dirty closet' thing and I do detest that, and for that reason, PARENTS, not government, are doing a poor job with the education. But you are twisting the argument. We are talking about kids, not grown adults. STD's were meant as a curse ... thats why we can't cure them. also ... Lets see ... that is 1 out of 10 teenagers. Now I look around and I really do not see that statistic matching up. ------------------ Nice guys finish last ... and im surely not going to finish last! [This message has been edited by Space Ghost (edited March 03, 2001).]
Look, teenage sex is never going to stop. Horny teenagers are going to screw around whether their parents tell them it's bad or not; why SHOULDN'T we use the Dutch method of dealing with a problem that's inevitable in the only practical manner? It seems like striving for the whole abstinence thing is, while noble, completely unrealistic. ------------------ "I don't want to join a club that accepts people like me as members."
The statistic may be wrong for all I know, but when you "look around", where are you doing it? The inner cities probably have far higher pregnancy rates than other places. ------------------ "I don't want to join a club that accepts people like me as members."
The fact is that teenage promiscuity is and always has been reality. You can simply ignore it or you can face the reality and deal with it. No amount of preaching is going to change it. We reach our peak of hormonal activity when we are about 16 - girls even younger. Up until the beginning of the 20th century, people married in their teens. We cannot ignore the powerful biological nature of the development of our bodies. Facing the reality that we are human and so is sexuality even for teenagers places it in the proper perspective. Treating the symptoms, as you put it, actually is ignoring the problem. Teenage sex is NOT a problem. Ignoring it IS. If you don't want your teenager to have sex, you can encourage them to make the right decision, but NO ONE can tell ANYONE what to do with his or her body. Telling them just to ignore those feelings is as bad as telling them to experiment as much as possible. There has to be a happy medium in teaching that sexuality is a good thing when handled responsibly. Arming kids with the truth about it is far more responsible than hiding it from them. ------------------ "You know what they say about the music business. Here today, gone TODAY! - Chris Rock at the MTV Music Video Awards
Did you not read the article?? The article states that the Netherlands has a teen pregnancy rate of less than 1%! Less than 1%! That is simply amazing. Also, the Netherlands has one of the lowest ratings for STDs. This is in a country where prostitution is legal. BTW, where have you been hiding? STDs can't be cured? Only HIV and Herpes can't be cured, but the latter can be treated and won't kill you, and the former can be treated so that one can almost expect to live out a full life to a natural death if it is caught soon enough. All the rest CAN be cured. Christian paranoia is what has screwed up this country so much. Look up some stats on things like drug addiction rates and alcohol related things and you will find that those rates, much like teen pregnancy and STD rates, are much lower than they are here. Keep in mind Europe is full of nations considered "soft" on drugs, and where the drinking age is often around 16. I believe that this is due to these things simply not being a "big deal" and/or taboo, like they are here. Teens have sex. They aren't going to stop, and pretending like they will is ludicrous. I think the government should have a role to keep down national dilemmas like teen pregnancy. I went to a Christian university and some of those people just had no clue. They pretended like these problems simply didn't exist or weren't thier problem to deal with. Funny thing is, some of the people I partied the hardest with were preachers' kids. Their parents were oblivious. It is because of cases like this, where parents won't take a role, or where parents simply think, "Not MY kid," that the government should have some sort of a program in place. ------------------ "We got f*cking smashed every day. And then when we came here to Beverly Hills, we had drugs, we had chicks, we had orgies. I thought I'd died and gone to f*cking Rome" ---Ozzy Osbourne, on the early days of Black Sabbath [This message has been edited by Lynus302 (edited March 04, 2001).]
So your two alternatives are "ignoring it", and "here son, here's a rubber, just be home by midnight". Sorry, but there are other ways to teach kids the right thing to do. I don't recall mentioning anything about ignoring the problem in my post. Let's look at a few other problems in society, and try to use the same approach mentioned in the article: Drinking and driving--this is a reality. It'll never stop, so don't even try. Just have your teenager invite all his friends over each weekend, and have a kegger. Each of his friends' parents can alternate who buys the keg each weekend. This way, you know your child won't drink and drive. Trust me, this will cut down on the amount of drunk driving fatalities, and will teach kids to 'drink responsibly'. Drugs--when you're not hosting keggers, you can let your child have his friends over for drug parties. You can provide the needles, so everyone knows they're sterile. Kids are going to do drugs, that's just the way it is. This way, at least they'll be supervised and you can eliminate the possibility of anybody catching HIV. The beauty of it all is that each of these drug and alcohol parties could easily turn into a beautiful, supervised, natural orgy without much trouble because each kid would have a rubber that their parents gave them before they left the house. Parents could even advise on the best positions.
Freak: You are smarter than that. Do you honestly believe that those are my ONLY two options? I SAID "encourage them to make the RIGHT decision." I don't recall that ever meaning handing someone a "rubber" and saying "just be home by midnight." By the way Freak, I know you aren't married. Are YOU still a virgin? Because, I assume you practice what you preach, correct? ------------------ "You know what they say about the music business. Here today, gone TODAY! - Chris Rock at the MTV Music Video Awards
Ouch, Jeff. Not only are you making a false assumption about TheFreak, but you're kind of stepping out of line aren't you? I know I wouldn't appreciate a loaded and very personal question like that. ------------------ NOTHING BUT .NET CLUTCHCITY.NET
Again, The only two options you mention are ignoring it, or 'face the reality and deal with it'. By posting an article about a Dutch society that has a 'permissive attitude toward teen sexuality', and provides their teenagers with easy access to contraceptives, and pointing to it as a model, I don't see that what I posted is such a huge leap from the situation you present. I read you as being pretty dismissive of the idea of abstinence--"If you don't want your teenager to have sex, you can encourage them to make the right decision, but NO ONE can tell ANYONE what to do with his or her body. "--not exactly a ringing endorsement. The fundamental difference here is that you don't think teenage sex is wrong, and I do. I don't believe it, Jeff is finally wrong about something! Whether I'm a virgin or not isn't relevant. I'm not preaching anything. I can tell my kids not to drink, it doesn't mean I can't have a drink myself if I want to.
First off, you are putting words in my mouth. I don't believe teenage sex is a good thing. However, I recognize that it does happen because many parents are not involved or don't care. I am not permissivie of abstinence. Actually, the oppositie. My comment that you can't stop people from doing what they choose is simply reality. You can choose to believe that or not. I've never been able to stop people from doing or believing what they want. None of us can. I'm simply facing that and trying to find a way to best deal with that on a mass scale. You might be able to somewhat control your kids' choices, but you can't control everyone's kids' choices. I'd prefer there were at least some support in place to help them when they don't have help at home. Well, you are right. I am wrong for the first time ever. You can tell your kids not to drink but you can't stop them from doing it. That is the difference. We make choices with our bodies that no one else can make for us. Teenagers are particularly prone to that type of behavior. They do dumb things. I did when I was a kid. And, by the way, I don't feel like I'm out of line. I was making a point. I was a virgin until I was 22 years old if everyone is interested. I have nothing at all to hide. I was a born again Christian for my teenage life and I had NO clue about sexuality. I didn't even understand how to HAVE sex until I actually had sex for the first time. I was incredibly sheltered, but not out of lack of desire but rather fear. You have to discuss all the possibilities with kids and teach them your own sense of values. Whether or not they follow that is up to them. That was my point from the beginning. Better that kids be prepared when and if they decide to move into that area of their human development than to leave them confused, curious and in a dangerous position. ------------------ "You know what they say about the music business. Here today, gone TODAY! - Chris Rock at the MTV Music Video Awards
I didn't say you thought it was good, I said you thought it wasn't wrong. I took that straight from what you said here: Sorry if I misinterpreted you. As for where the rest of this discussion is heading, I think Dr. Ruth may be a more appropriate moderator.
