I question the sincerity of the statistics. America is a much more open society, than most others. They are not comparing apples to apples, and every recent study that I have seen shows teen pregnacy in the US going down. This is a big sales pitch for socialized medicine. They are selling it while trying to appeal to our noble conservative motives. They are good at it. I hope those guys are not publicly funded.
"Don't drink the kool-aid."
I ain't drinkin' nuthin'.
"To begin with, those socialist countries are not having children period. They don't have enough children to keep up with their aging populations."
True, but what would our growth rate be like without all the teen pregnancy? We aren't that far above 'replacement' either.
"Secondly, all of those sources are questionable. Remember that France is the country where hardly are whimper was heard about the Oil for Food scandal or anything else that didn't agree with the Chirac party line. Can you say media control and cover up?"
Please, I despise the eurosocialists as much as anybody, but that doesn't mean that everything from there is a government coverup. I don't agree that the sources are questionable just because they reference France. Statistics like this are too easy to verify.
"I question the sincerity of the statistics."
Why?
"America is a much more open society, than most others."
Yes, in many ways. Explaining sex to our kids, by and large, is not one of them.
"They are not comparing apples to apples, and every recent study that I have seen shows teen pregnacy in the US going down."
How is their comparison invalid? They present statistics about the same things in each society. As far as teen pregnancy trends, how is it trending in the other countries in the study? Even if it is declining in the US (and I agree that it is) why is it still so much higher here? The same questions apply to STDs which were also covered in the study.
"This is a big sales pitch for socialized medicine. They are selling it while trying to appeal to our noble conservative motives. They are good at it. I hope those guys are not publicly funded."
Perhaps, but I don't see it that way.
We need to be honest with ourselves. The Europeans are more successful with their children in this regard because they are open and honest with them. They have a relatively successful abstinence/safe sex program. This is one area where they do something better than us. If you can refute the study, then by all means do so. But denial accomplishes nothing.