Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine spoke out about the importance of teenage girls knowing how to remain abstinence at The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
At the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy's conference on Tuesday, panelists and participants said "comprehensive" sex education for teens that includes access to contraception and abortion is needed to reverse a recent up-tick in teenage pregnancies. But some at the event said abstinence should not be overlooked as the only certain way to avoid pregnancy.
"I think one of things we haven't really talked about is abstinence," Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief at Seventeen magazine and panelist, said at the event, held at the National Press Club. "Talking about how you deal with abstinent, when you stay abstinent, when your body is saying, like, this feels right.
"It's a really important thing to girls today and for us to talk about it with girls, to talk about why it is important and how it really is the only 100 percent way not to get pregnant is not to have sex," Shoket said.
She added that giving girls the right message about how to express their desire to stay abstinent also is important.
"At the same time, when girls find themselves in this situation then you have to give her words to say," Shoket said.
Television talk show host Maury Povich was the moderator for a panel at the event that discusses how pop culture can help in the fight to reduce teen pregnancies. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)"How do you do that?" asked television talk show host Maury Povich, who moderated the pop culture panel.
"We've given these girls scripts," Shoket said. "Actually, literally, say this to your guy when you're in this situation. I think that's a really important thing. There are some things to say when you are in a certain situation."
Shoket said just as important as teens having hopes and dreams for their future, they also need a practical way to protect those plans.
"It's also important for girls to have a plan for the moment," she said.
"That's really true," Kristen Alderson, whose teen character on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live" became pregnant after having sex once with her boyfriend. "I know in my own personal life, whenever someone says something mean to me and then I go back and tell my mom about it, she says, 'Well, you should have said this.'
"Not every teenage girl has a mom, or a parent or a guardian to say, 'Well you should have said this,'" said Alderson, 17, who has acted on the television show since she was 6.
"So I think that's really great," Alderson said. "I've seen that in Seventeen before."
One of the participants at the conference, who identified herself as an obstetrician and gynecologist, said she serves mostly poor, black teenage girls. She told the group about one 17-year-old patient who was diagnosed with a second ectopic pregnancy.
Kristen Alderson, whose teen character on the soap opera "One Life to Live" gets pregnant, spoke at the event. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
"She dropped out of school, had no aspirations for the future," the woman said. "And when I asked her if she knew about the 100 percent way to prevent pregnancy and she's like 'I don't know.'"
"I said abstinence," the woman said. "And she said, 'What's that, a shot?'"
Copies of the June 2009 Seventeen magazine were handed out at the conference. One of the articles is entitled "The Secret Life of Pregnant Teenagers" – a title that closely resembles the Disney-ABC television show "The Secret Life of an American Teenager," which was represented on the panel by Vickie Collier, vice president of digital media for the Disney-ABC Television Group.
The article profiles three teens, two pregnant and one who gave birth to her daughter more than a year ago. One of the teens is being featured on a MTV reality show this summer "16 and Pregnant." The article also mentions "options" for pregnant teens, including adoption and abortion, with Planned Parenthood named as an abortion provider.
"I love my daughter more than anything," 16-year-old Brittany says in the article in Seventeen. "But I wouldn't wish being a teen mom on anyone."
"You may love kids and think you're ready, but you're not," Brittany says. "Not by any means. We're not old enough. We're not mature enough. We don't know anything about it."
The June issue of Seventeen magazine also features the Jonas Brothers on the cover. The three brothers in the boy band told "Details" magazine earlier this year that they wore "purity" rings to show their commitment to refrain from sex until marriage.
Contact: Penny Starr
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: May 6, 2009
Link to this article.
Send this article to a friend.
