Sex and Stuff

Similar to my previous blog about crime and punishment comes the topic of sex and stuff. Here in the Netherlands, there are very few teenage pregnancies (teenage being age 15-19). The rate is 8.7 per 1,000 inhabitants. You've probably already guessed where I'm going with this. The rate in the US? 79.8 per 1,000 inhabitants!!! That number really shocked me and I had to triple check it. It is correct though. The US has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of the developed world. As a result of this, we also have one of the highest rates of abortion. The US's rate is actually eight times higher than the NL with a rate of 27.5 to 4.2 (per 1,000). The STD rate in the US is also five times higher than in the NL. An interesting fact, surveys have shown that teens in the US and in the NL start having sex at about the same age.

I first started thinking about this when I was at someone's house here. When I asked where one of the kids was, I was told he had stayed at his girlfriend's house. "Really?" I responded "and you know about that? Do her parents know about it?" Of course, was the answer. The next week we visited a high school and I asked one of the teachers about teenage pregnancy. She said in all of her years as a teacher, she could remember only one girl who was pregnant. I asked if there was sex education in their classrooms and there is. It is similar to ours (I think) in that it is taught in health class. However, all options are covered and discussed openly. Students are told where and how to get contraceptives (btw, the NL has one of the highest contraception use among youth in the world). Abstinence is rarely discussed. It's been awhile since I had a health class so this could've changed since my class. Also, I was in the south which I think varies from other parts of the country and from larger cities. Anyway, the same week I was talking with another girl who also mentioned staying at her boyfriend's. Again I said, "Really? and your parents know?" She went on to tell me quite a bit about this topic and it was all completely foreign to me. Last year when I brought my then boyfriend home with me (I was 27), we had to sleep in different rooms. In fact, I think that I could be 60 and would still have to sleep in separate rooms if I brought a boyfriend to my parents' house (love you mom and dad). It seems that the families here are much more open about a lot of topics that many Americans are afraid to approach. Why? Well, I'm going to have to bring up religion again. Like I said previously, people in the NL aren't as religious. I don't think they see premarital sex as a sin or as a bad thing but as a natural occurrence. They are more open about it, teenagers understand it and how to protect and prepare themselves for it. Religious groups here have very little influence on public policy. Nudity in magazines or on television is not an uncommon thing here. This was also interesting. If the US had the teenage pregnancy rates that the Netherlands have, with our current population, we would have about 657,000 fewer teenage pregnancies and 215 fewer abortions and save $921 million in public costs a year!