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Pregnancies Concern Gadsden School Officials
Santa Fe New Mexican ^ | 12/22/03 | A.P.

Posted on 12/22/2003 12:36:20 PM PST by Holly_P

ANTHONY, N.M. - The Gadsden Independent School District says 66 students are pregnant - most of them younger than age 15 and two of them still in elementary school.

Young girls getting pregnant is nothing new, but the problem appears to be increasing, said Sue Gowing, a nurse with La Clinica de Familia who splits her time between the district's two high school clinics.

Forty of the pregnant girls this year are freshmen, seven are in middle school and two are in elementary school. Sixth-grade is elementary school in the Gadsden district.

Last year 74 pregnancies were reported at Gadsden High School; 20 were reported at Santa Teresa High School.

New Mexico has the fifth highest teenage birth rate in the country, with nearly 5,000 babies born to teenagers each year. About one-third of all families in New Mexico begin with a birth to a teenage mother. Dona Ana County had the fifth-highest teenage pregnancy rate in New Mexico last year.

Last year La Clinica and Gadsden's school-based health clinics proposed making contraceptives available in school clinics. The idea probably will come before the school board early next year.

Gowing said the availability of condoms or birth control pills in school clinics would be a Band-Aid to the problem. However, she said it would help teens who want contraception but have difficulty getting it because of a lack of transportation.

Santa Fe Public Schools began dispensing contraception to students at school-based health clinics years ago after health staff discovered some students, mostly younger ones, were not picking up free birth control pills from county health offices, said Robert Benon, a family nurse practitioner at the Teen Health Centers in Santa Fe high schools.

Santa Fe health workers approached the district about providing birth control pills at high school clinics. Pills are now available, but only after discussions of abstinence and sexually transmitted disease, Benon said.

The rate of pregnancy at Santa Fe high schools dropped about 36 percent between 1997 and 2001, according to a recent report. Benon said the national teen pregnancy rate dropped about 9 percent over the period.

Noemi Loera, 18, who began pregnant at 15, is not sure easier access to birth control would have made a difference to hear.

"I'm not sure if anything would have helped," she said during a Gadsden High School class offered to teen parents.

Loera said she thought becoming pregnant would help keep her boyfriend, but he disappeared soon afterward.

She also said no one ever talked to her about sex until after she was pregnant.

School health officials hear that complaint when discussing abstinence, protection against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

"They do not know basic stuff about their bodies," said Colleen Runyan, head nurse at Gadsden High School's clinic.

"Lack of knowledge coupled with a majority of students having their first sexual encounter at 12 is a dangerous mix. The typical teenager, they don't think it can happen to them," she said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: New Mexico
KEYWORDS: pregnancy; teens
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To: Syncro
I've researched the issue of why girls are maturing at earlier ages and I believe that the reason is body weight. Estrogen is produced and stored in fat, so the heavier the little girl, the earlier hormone levels surge. Think back to high school: the naturally thin ectomorphs were late bloomers who started menstruating later than everyone else. Nowadays, children are so much fatter. The body fat explanation also accounts for the fact that black girls menstruate earlier than white girls (i.e., overall, black girls are fatter.)
21 posted on 12/22/2003 1:35:56 PM PST by utahagen
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To: luckymom
She "began" pregnant? What a time saver!
22 posted on 12/22/2003 1:37:02 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (Born in California 1958 - Fled to Washington 2002)
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To: utahagen
the heavier the little girl, the earlier hormone levels surge.

Oh, I dont' know about that. My 14-y/o stepdaughter is slender and has more raging hormones than any one child should have, and she's been that way since she was 12. Since the state won't let me lock her in a closet until she's 21, I guess I need to start knitting a layette.

23 posted on 12/22/2003 1:39:05 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (Born in California 1958 - Fled to Washington 2002)
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To: SandyInSeattle
I think this refers to girls getting their menses at 9 or earlier, along with many other secondary sexual characteristics. 12 is about right, 8 is not.
24 posted on 12/22/2003 2:04:44 PM PST by Little Pig
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To: Little Pig
True.
25 posted on 12/22/2003 2:06:06 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (Born in California 1958 - Fled to Washington 2002)
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To: Holly_P
No doubt another liberal class project!!
26 posted on 12/22/2003 2:30:45 PM PST by INSENSITIVE GUY
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To: Old Professer
The method used in "A Boy and His Dog" may be more plausible.
27 posted on 12/22/2003 2:35:50 PM PST by Deguello
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To: T'wit
"and they added sex education to teach kids how."

LOL
28 posted on 12/22/2003 2:45:39 PM PST by John Beresford Tipton
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To: Holly_P
"The Gadsden Independent School District says 66 students are pregnant - most of them younger than age 15 and two of them still in elementary school."

The harvest of modern liberalism. The modern liberal oligarchy has introduced the concept of the "hyperactive birth canal" to their proletarian camp followers.

29 posted on 12/22/2003 2:46:39 PM PST by davisfh
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To: Holly_P
La Clinica de Familia

That would be a clinic in America with a Spanish title. Hmmmmmm. I wonder if there's any connection between the Mexicanization of this area and the increase in recorded teenage pregnancies.

Of course, even asking that question must mean I'm some sort of bigot.

30 posted on 12/22/2003 2:54:03 PM PST by IronJack
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To: stripes1776
In law, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong is the definition of "criminal insanity." For liberals, it is their philosophy.
31 posted on 12/22/2003 4:05:28 PM PST by T'wit
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To: SandyInSeattle
I don't think it has to do with "size," it has to do with body fat....thin girls can be fat.
32 posted on 12/22/2003 8:00:23 PM PST by goodnesswins (Happy HOLY Days)
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To: T'wit
I am not all that old, but I remember when my girlfriend told me that she and her boyfriend were sleeping together at his house after school, I honestly thought that she meant that they were taking naps.

No napping in New Mexico.
33 posted on 12/22/2003 8:08:09 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs (Dean, a constant critic of the war now left looking like a monkey whose organ grinder had run away.)
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To: Holly_P
Albuquerque Journal article here:

66 Teens in School District Pregnant

34 posted on 12/23/2003 11:03:21 AM PST by CedarDave (Insted of using the new spel checkr, I'll just tpye as usal.)
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To: CedarDave
I saw that - Two different sources.
35 posted on 12/23/2003 11:05:17 AM PST by Holly_P (Everytime that video clip of Sadaam plays on TV it "bitch slaps" a democrat somewhere.)
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To: Puppage
Santa Fe Public Schools began dispensing contraception to students at school-based health clinics years ago after health staff discovered some students, mostly younger ones, were not picking up free birth control pills from county health offices, said Robert Benon, a family nurse practitioner at the Teen Health Centers in Santa Fe high schools.

Unbelievable, free pills, years ago? Obviously, they need government nurses to go out to all the student’s homes, daily, to be sure the little ones take their free pills. There is the problem, they forget to take their pills. (/sarcasm)

36 posted on 12/23/2003 11:17:26 AM PST by Lurking in Kansas
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To: IronJack
I wonder if there's any connection between the Mexicanization of this area and the increase in recorded teenage pregnancies.

No doubt about it ---- the school is mostly Mexican or the kids born to Mexicans --- you probably couldn't find 5% non-hispanics in this school. Very high levels of welfare useage ---- and to become generational for many years into the future.

37 posted on 12/23/2003 11:28:57 AM PST by FITZ
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To: hgro
It's a macho culture ----- the boys take great pride in siring as many kids as possible ---- and of course they never pay a dime of support and the little girls are so desperate for boyfriends and welfare checks, they commonly have 2 or 3 kids while in high school before they drop out.
38 posted on 12/23/2003 11:31:23 AM PST by FITZ
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To: Holly_P
Loera said she thought becoming pregnant would help keep her boyfriend, but he disappeared soon afterward.

This reasoning is a lot older than I am.

39 posted on 12/23/2003 11:34:21 AM PST by Graybeard58
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To: Holly_P
Loera said she thought becoming pregnant would help keep her boyfriend

Dumb idea, Loera.

40 posted on 12/23/2003 11:40:08 AM PST by usadave
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