Pregnancy awareness month
educates teens
By Morgan Conklin
Summer
Reporter
The month of May is more than just a time for
graduations, pool parties and vacations. It is also Teen Pregnancy
Prevention Awareness Month
The Senate declared this as a month of education
regarding teen pregnancy in 1998 so adolescents could become aware
of the possible consequences of their sexual behavior.
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 80
percent of all US citizens are sexually active by the age of 20, and
13 percent of all US births are to teen-agers. Also, 85 percent of
teen pregnancies are unplanned.
Many women’s health clinics and pregnancy
centers devote time to teach courses aimed at awareness and prevention
of teen pregnancy.
Sally Janowiak, director of the Matrix Lifeline
Pregnancy Center, said the center offers a course called Face-to-Face:
Facing Abstinence Challenges Educationally. "This course tries
to make students aware that sex is not essential to the dating life,"
she said. "If they are considering physical, emotional and spiritual
health they need to know facts about the safest and healthiest choice
for them."
Janowiak said that because of the course, a few
students have changed their sexual behavior. "People need to
be encouraged that (abstinence) is the healthy choice and they aren’t
the only ones in the world that want to make that choice," she
said.
The awareness month has also received positive
student reactions "I think it is a great way to show teens the
consequences of their actions," Matt Leisinger, a junior in the
Schools of Engineering, said. "It’s good to let them know
that one night could end up changing their life."
