LatinaLista.net
Something good is happening in California.
For a state more accustomed to bad news -- a broke state economy, a slashing of public services, an increase in health premiums by the state's largest health insurer, rising college tuition rates, escalating home foreclosures, crime, etc. -- today's news that the state's Latina teens are having less babies than their counterparts across the country is excellent news.
According to the California Department of Public Health, California's teen birth rate is at a record low. For Latina teens, though they still have the undesirable distinction of having the largest teen pregnancy rate in the state, their numbers have gone down from 62 percent in 2007 to 57 percent in 2008.
Pregnant middle-school students (Source: globalgrind.com)
This decline bucks the national trend of anincrease in Latina teen pregnancies in states throughout the Southwest, Southeast and Midwest.
With more Latina teens having multiple births while still unprepared for motherhood, lacking a basic high school education, or a decent paying job and depending on help from cash-strapped family members and straining public services, California's success begs the question, "How?"
It's not so much what they did but what they refused to do.
What they didn't do was believe the hype that an abstinence-only curriculum works for every teen.
California makes sure their students receive "comprehensive sexual health education."