Report: Teen pregnancy less likely in S.F.
By: Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
February 2, 2009
 |
| Young mom: Victoria Pascasio, 20, holds daughter Anina, 3 months old, at the Young Family Resource Center in the Mission district. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco teens are getting pregnant at nearly half the rate of their peers statewide, but Hispanics give birth eight times as often as whites, according to a new report.
The City’s adolescents are also less likely to be sexually active — and more likely to use condoms — than others in California, according to “A Snapshot of Youth Health and Wellness,” issued this month by San Francisco-based Adolescent Health Working Group.
San Francisco teens 15 to 19 gave birth at a rate of 20 per 1,000 between 2003 and 2005, well shy of the 34 per 1,000 average reported across the Bay Area and 37 per 1,000 statewide.
However, Hispanic teens in San Francisco gave birth at a rate of 55 per 1,000 in 2004 compared to 7 per 1,000 for white adolescents and 5 per 1,000 for Asians.
“Overall, we’re terrific,” said Marlo Simmons, adolescent health coordinator for The City’s Department of Children, Youth and Families. “But when you boil it down, you can’t help seeing the disparities.”
In general, the lower birth rates — along with heightened sexual responsibility among San Francisco teens — can be chalked up to schools’ insistence on teaching kids about sex early and often, according to Charlene Clemens, who works with teen moms at the Family Service Agency of San Francisco.
Students in the San Francisco Unified School District begin learning about HIV and AIDS prevention in kindergarten, get their first lessons in puberty by fourth-grade and by sixth-grade are learning about sexuality, according to Meyla Ruwin, director of district health programs. The education continues through senior year.
Every piece of the curriculum is approved at state and local levels. Among San Francisco high school students polled for the recent report, only 28 percent reported that they have had intercourse, compared to 48 percent nationwide.
The high birth rate among Hispanic teens in The City, however, is lower than the national average of 82.6 per 1,000 in 2004, according to Clemens.
To reach out to those girls, the Family Service Agency sponsors a program in which teen moms meet with seventh- and eighth-grade students, including at Balboa High School and Visitacion Valley and Horace Mann middle schools. In those talks, the young moms dispel myths about pregnancy and child rearing, according to program director Wave Geber.
Sexual activity among teens
The Bay Area, and especially San Francisco, has a much lower teen pregnancy rate than other parts of the state and nation.
Have had sexual intercourse: San Francisco, 26 percent, nation, 48 percent
Used condom during last encounter: San Francisco, 71 percent, nation, 35 percent
Teen birth rate (15-19), 2003-2005:
San Francisco, Bay Area, State
20 in 1,000, 34 in 1,000, 37 in 1,000
San Francisco teen birth rate by race, 2004:
Hispanic, Black, White, Asian
55 in 1,000, 43 in 1,000, 7 in 1,000, 5 in 1,000
National teen birth rate by race, 2004:
82.6 per 1,000, 63.1 per 1,000, 26.1 per 1,000, 17.3 per 1,000
Sources: Adolescent Health Working Group, National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
