Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:21:39 +0000

I often hear the allegation that Europe's teen pregnancy rates are so much lower than the US teen pregnancy rate - and this is supposedly because their culture is so much more liberal and secular than the US and therefore more "advanced" and superior to that of the US.

(By the way, the lowest teen pregnancy rate in the world is in South Korea, at 2.9 per 1000. South Korea is also one of the most conservative countries in the world socially. Their society condemns sex outside of marriage, and their country has one of the lowest rates of HIV in the world. Sex education in school is very limited and scant on details.

I find it interesting that South Korea is among the least diverse populations in the world. Also - there basically is no such thing as single motherhood in South Korea. If you get pregnant outside of marriage, you give the baby up for adoption - PERIOD. There is basically a zero tolerance level in that society for unwed parenthood. It is considered an absolute disgrace and the child of such a union is generally ostracized.)

http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-03-1...prostitution/3

The highest teen pregnancy rates are in Sub Saharan Africa.

I'd like to share a few facts regarding European and US teen pregnancy rates and then hear some discussion on the topic.

I believe that we cannot get a complete picture of the issue without also taking into consideration ethnicity, abortion rates, and the way in which the statistics are gathered and reported.

European countries are individually much smaller than the US, and are much more homogenous - with less diversity in regard to ethnicity, education levels, and income. This also needs to be taken into consideration when comparing data and forming an opinion on many different matters, including teen pregnancy.

In 2006 rates of teen pregnancy in the US were as follows:

71.5 pregnancies per 1000 young women ages 15-19
41.9 births per 1000 young women ages 15-19
32.6 abortions per 1000 young women ages 15-19

By race:
African American young women 15-19: 126.3 pregnancies per 1000
Non Hispanic white young women 15-19: 44 pregnancies per 1000
Hispanic young women 15-19: 126 pregnancies per 1000

In general, states with the highest number of teens had the highest number of teen pregnancies. New Mexico had the highest teen pregnancy RATE and and New Hampshire had the lowest.

Teen abortion rates were highest in New York and lowest in South Dakota.

Teen birthrates were highest in Texas and lowest in New Hampshire.

If you include DC - which is not a state - DC has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States.

New York has the highest pregnancy rate for African American teens.
Alabama has the highest pregnancy rate for Hispanic teens.
Arkansas has the highest pregnancy rate for white teens.

Abortions are much more common in the Northeast and Nevada, and the lowest in the Western Plains states, while births are much more common in the Southwest (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Arkansas) and Mississippi.

Hispanic population is much higher in the Southwest and South. Figures do not take into account whether or not a teen is married.

Hispanic cultural norms include younger ages for marriage, more tolerance for single parenthood, and less tolerance for abortion.

Another note - abortions are not as easily tracked because all states do not use the same method of reporting abortions.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf

Now - onto Europe:

It's much more difficult to sort through European birthrates because all countries do not report these rates in the same fashion. For instance, Holland reports a very low birthrate for women under age 20 (7 per 1000) but they include ALL females under age 20, including girls under age 10 and even infants.

As for abortions, Europe in general has tighter abortion laws - generally abortions strictly limited after 17 weeks. Counseling and waiting periods are more common than in the US. There is more of a stigma associated with abortion in many European countries, who still are heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. Methods of reporting abortions are at least as inconsistent as the methods throughout the US. In fact, early abortions are generally not even classified as abortions throughout Europe - they are termed "menstrual extraction" instead. Often a pregnancy test is not even used - when a young woman misses her period, she is simply given a "menstrual extraction." So - the data is harder to compile.

In Holland -

The number of pregnancies in young women:
55.2% were in non-Dutch young women, and 13% were Dutch
Muslim teens had the highest pregancy rates, followed by ethnic Africans

Teenage pregnancy and ethnicity in the Netherlands: frequency and obstetric outcome; The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care - 5(1):Pages 77-84 - Informa Healthcare

In Great Britain, black and Caribbean girls had much higher pregnancy and abortion rates than white British girls:
Black girls to be the targets of plan to cut teen pregnancy - Times Online

I couldn't find much info on teen pregnancy by race in Germany - in fact, none at all. If anyone knows a source, I'd like to see it. I did find this:
Social issues in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article points out that the higher the poverty rate, the higher the teen pregnancy rate for Germans. I do know that ethnic minorities and immigrant groups in Germany have much higher poverty rates than ethnic Germans, so I think it's a safe assumption that their teen pregnancy rates are higher. That's the implication, anyway.

I was very frustrated trying to find any information that broke down teen pregnancy rates in Europe by ethnicity. Many European countries have significant groups of minorities within their borders - and I was curious about their pregnancy rates vs. ethnic French, German, etc.

It was interesting to me that this information is readily available in regard to the US, but not in regard to other developed countries. Wonder why that is?

The roots of Texas education planted in Colonial Spanish days

by Dr. Lino García, Jr.

When Pánfilo Narváez and Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca along with a few hundred Spanish soldiers landed on Galveston Bay on November 6, 1528, the exploration and the settlement of the territory of Texas brought into this state European institutions that still prevail at the present time. One of these was Spain’s yearning for and dedication to the education of its citizens.
Hundreds of Spain’s best and most brilliant scholars, and educators from the best universities in Spain and Europe flooded the New World with a mission to educate the natives, and the children of the Spanish explorers and conquerors that had subsequently arrived in the new world. It is no wonder that in Colonial Spanish Texas early attempts were initiated by the Spanish and Mexican authorities in establishing schools.
Max Berger in his “Education in Texas during the Spanish/Mexican Periods” gives us an insight into the early efforts by Spanish/Mexican citizens of Colonial Spanish Texas in establishing the first system of public schools. Spanish soldiers occupied Texas by establishing military outposts, with the early Spanish missions an integral part of that military policy. The Indian population was to be Christianized, educated, and prepared to be citizens of the Spanish Empire. Thus, every mission had as its component an industrial school for instructions in industry and agriculture.
The Spanish language was also taught to the Indian population. The first of such a mission with its instructional component was established in Texas in 1690, and within five or more years twenty-five such Spanish missions were also started. We know that the first settlement in Texas by Spanish families and soldiers was the founding of San Fernando de Béxar (later San Antonio) in 1718; and thereafter it was inevitable that a need for education existed for the children of Spanish settlers, soldiers, and governmental officials in the Texas of that time.
It is known that the first such non-mission school began its operation in San Antonio, Texas, in the year 1746. It was a normal parish school as was in place throughout the Spanish Empire; it was conducted and had as its mission the training of the young in religious doctrines. Another such school was opened in San Antonio in the year 1789, but closed soon in 1792.
A few years later in 1802, an official edict was pronounced by the Spanish government in Texas that called for a school to be in operation prescribing compulsory attendance, and with penalties for parent for any failure to comply. One year later another official order was proclaimed establishing schools at all military posts in Texas, with provisions to grant a small salary for its teachers.
Spanish authorities had a penchant for details and for direct authority in all its affairs in the New World, which also included Spanish Colonial Texas, and it is no wonder that detailed instructions for the organization of its schools also reflected that policy. Thus, in San Antonio a school was established with public funds, offering free tuition , and setting the stage for the later on famous “Public Free Primary School’ that opened in San Antonio in the year 1828 and that had its blessings from the Mexican authorities who then ruled Texas after the state gained its independence from Spain in 1821.
We know that at La Bahía in the year 1818, a soldier by the name of Galán taught a class of eighteen children; receiving no salary, except for a few donations of meat, lard, salt, and the small salary he received as a soldier. The majority of the children, wrote a citizen then, “...are taught out of pure charity, the custom being not to give anything to this unfortunate wretch.” It was difficult to sustain any semblance of an educational system during the turbulent years of unrest between 1819 and 1821, when Texas was liberated by the Independence Movement of 1816, and when the territory reverted back to the Mexican authorities.
However the Mexican government, which ruled Texas after 1821, issued a proclamation allowing the states control of their educational endeavors, and such was the case in Texas. Thus, the new constitution of Coahuila and Texas of 1827 required all cities to establish primary schools in the territory.
We know that in 1828 the then governor of Texas José María Viesca encouraged parents to send their children to the best schools possible; and that by 1833 the state of Texas started the practice of granting land grants to establish local institutions of learning.
However, it was still difficult to establish a long lasting educational system of learning given the political unrest that set upon the Texas of that time. In San Antonio, the best of schools existed in all of the territory, but they were still far from perfect. Other factors were lack of teachers, and the high level of poverty of the state. However, San Antonio managed to establish a law known as the “Public Free Primary School,” which was free, subsidized by public funds and private subscriptions.
Rules were immediately established to conduct this endeavor, such as classes held from six to ten in the morning during the summer, and seven to twelve in the winter months; with classes held in the afternoon from two to six during the whole year. The instructor was to open the school with a prayer; and held strict observances of religious events. The lessons included the “three R’s”, with lessons in manners, morals, and religion. The teacher was hired on a four year contract at a salary of five hundred dollars a year, payable in monthly installments. These early schools in Spanish/Mexican Colonial Texas existed until the year 1834.
By this time in history the Mexican authorities were granting huge land grants to northerners to come to Texas to settle but with certain conditions, one being that they must learn the language spoken by its citizens, which was the Spanish language, and the other that they convert to Catholicism and pledge allegiance to the Mexican authorities.
In 1831, the townspeople of San Antonio constructed a school building, with contributions from the citizens of various sums of money; others gave lumber, nails, hinges, a calf, a barrel of corn, or personal services. A teacher from the north was hired but soon the citizens objected to his being in the classroom due to the fact that it was discovered that he lacked a proper passport to be in the Texas of that time. The early
contract with northerners required that schools be erected in each new colony, and that all instructions be given in Spanish, the official language of Texas of that time.
As the year of Texas Independence approached, one of the provisions of the new constitution was the establishment of a strong public school system in Texas. Early advocates of such efforts included Tejano patriots such as Lorenzo de Zavala, Antonio de Navarro, and Juan Seguín: Zavala introducing legislature to establish the first system of higher education in Texas; both Navarro and Seguín attempted to donate thousands of their own land for the purpose of establishing the first universities.
After the Texas Revolution culminated in the Battle of the Alamo of 1836, schools again began to flourish, but it cannot be denied that the early efforts of Spanish/Mexican authorities in establishing the first schools, with laws governing its administration was the embryonic source of the present Texas system of education now in existence.
Sadly, for much of the late 19th century and half of the 20th century, Spanish/Mexican children of Texas were subjected to segregated schools. This in spite of the fact that their ancestors worked diligently and did the heavy lifting in order to establish an educational system in Colonial Spanish Texas that set the stage for the present educational institutions that we all now enjoy.

Brownsville native Dr. Lino García, Jr., is Professor Emeritus of Spanish Literature at University of Texas-Pan Ameican. He can be reached at ( 956) 381-3441 or at
LGarcia@UTPA.edu.