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Our Neighbors to the North Get a Blue Ribbon for Sex Education While we FAIL

Mar 26th, 2009

 

Sure Canada might have a few questionable practices when it comes to young people and sex

Comments ( 2 )

I assume that my comment wasn't accepted because I had the URL for where I got my stats. I'll try again without it:

I'd argue that a lot could be explained by racial composition.

According to US Teen Pregnancy Statistics:

The teen pregnancy rates for girls 15-19 are as follows:

White: 48/1000
Black: 134/1000
Hispanic: 131/1000

They don't list Asian, but they do list all "Nonwhite" as 113.1 which is clearly lower than the rate for Black and Hispanic which as a percentage of "Nonwhite" make up the lions share--I'm saying this both because they chose to break out the two other subgroups, but also because based on 1999 statistics they make up 4.5% of the population as compared with Black (12.5%) or (Hispanic 11.5). Assuming that these three groups make up "Nonwhite" then the Asian teen pregnancy rate would be only 20.6.

Canada has 2.5% Black population, 1% Hispanic population, 11% Asian Canadians.

I know that you're talking about the change in teen pregnancy rate, but if you consider where the population growth (from birth and immigration)is coming from for both nations this goes a long way toward explaining the cited statistics.

I'm against abstinence-only education too. Please don't misuse statistics. You make all of us who support the cause look like fools.

Anonymous commented on Mar 25 09 at 2:36 pm

Um, can I just say that sex ed in Canada varies WIDELY. Education is a provincial, not a federal, responsibility and as such curriculums can vary lots across the country. So, yes, some areas have a great sex ed, others not so much.

And what's this about a high school nurse? Wtf? I've never heard of a school that had a full-time nurse on staff. That would cost huge amounts of money and only the wealthiest of school boards could afford that. I think we may have had one nurse for the entire school board when I was in high school. I never met the person, but allegedly they were in the school once or twice a month. I have no idea what they did. Or maybe it was just a big lie and no nurse actually existed?

But, yes... some sex ed is better than none and I at least recall a great deal of focus on birth control in my grade 9 girls' sex ed classes. Even more awesome is universal health care. I am damn lucky to be up here. :)

jezebel9 commented on Mar 25 09 at 8:57 pm

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