Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin is 5 months pregnant.  Sixteen-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears (Brittany’s sister) got pregnant.  18-year old Oscar-nominated actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who starred in movies such as Star Wars Episode III and The Whale Rider, was only 16 when she gave birth to her daughter Felicity-Amore on April 25, 2007.

Here’s the good news, according to Advocates for Youth, since 1991, U.S. teenage pregnancy, abortion, and birth rates have declined steadily in every age and racial/ethnic group. Teenage birth rates declined in every state as well as in the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Research indicates that sexually active teens are becoming more effective users of contraception and that more teens are choosing to remain abstinent during early and middle adolescence. Nevertheless, the United States continues to have higher rates of teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion than other industrialized nations.  Most teenage mothers come from socially and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds; adolescent motherhood often compounds this disadvantage.

Here’s the bad news, each year, approximately 750,000 to 850,000 teenage women in the United States experience pregnancy. Seventy-four to 95 percent of teen pregnancies are unintended.

What’s a parent to do?  Dr. Debra W. Haffner, former President of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), in an article titled: Facing Facts:  Sexual Health for American Adolescents has some great ideas. She suggests that parents of sexually healthy adolescents:

• Demonstrate value, respect, acceptance, and trust in their adolescent children.
• Model sexually healthy attitudes in their own relationships.
• Maintain a non-punitive stance toward sexuality.
• Are knowledge about sexuality.
• Discuss sexuality with their children.
• Provide information on sexuality to their children.
• Seek appropriate guidance and information as needed.
• Try to understand their son’s or daughter’s point of view.
• Help their daughter or son gain an understanding of their values.
• Set and maintain limits for dating and other activities outside of school.
• Stay actively involved in their son’s or daughter’s life.
• Ask questions about friends and romantic partners.
• Provide a supportive and safe environment for their children.
• Offer to assist adolescents in accessing health care services.