Upstate Teen Pregnancy Problem

Some call it a crisis situation. The number of teens having sex and getting pregnant in our communities, but for one Upstate community it is a problem that keeps growing.
Now a new study released about the problem takes a look at what why the problem is so bad.
They are every where, sexual images, the young people our children look up to wearing provocative outfits and some having babies before they are out of high school.

Nedonna Pender says she worries about what influences her children.
"It is around them so much, they see it so much, they hear it so much. It is part of their language."

A new study, by the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, United Way, Mary Black Foundation and Spartanburg Regional finds South Carolina has made strides in reducing teen sex and pregnancy. In the Upstate that excludes one county.

Chrissy Calvert with Reach Upstate says, "I think we have to look at the reality 641 teenagers got pregnant in a year in Spartanburg County."

In Spartanburg County, the pregnancy rates are the highest in the state. In 2005, rates for 15 to 17 year olds were twenty-five percent above the state average. For that age group, there were nearly twenty-five hundred births in the state that year.

Chrissy Calvert says, "We have to make some serious changes in the education that we provide as a community and as a family throughout."

The study finds, there's a lot of misinformation. Children are learning about sex from their friends and while they get sex education in school its mostly in high school. By then it's too late for many.

The study reveals nearly 50 percent of 9th graders in South Carolina are sexually active.

District 7 Superintendent Dr. Thomas White does agree something needs to be done.

Superintendent Dr. Thomas White with Spartanburg District 7 says, "What we are able to do is defined specifically by the law and it focuses on abstinence based education."

We asked Dr. White if he thinks it is a problem, "It is a problem if it is 641 or 1."

White admits schools could begin teaching some form of sex education in middle school if parents and lawmakers supported it.

Dr. White says, " I think those kinds of decisions are best made by the parents who are involved with their children. They need to be talking to kids about those kinds of things."

The new study recommends teaching abstinence combined with contraception, information about sexually transmitted disease and reproductive health.

Chrissy Calvert says, "The reduction from adolescent pregnancy just from this type of education is tremendous."

National numbers show thirty-six percent of South Carolina teens are sexually active. The numbers go up to thirty-eight percent in North Carolina.

At Cornerstone Baptist Church in Spartanburg, Dr. Charles Jackson believes churches need to address the problem.

Dr. Charles Jackson, III says, "I think it is a crisis that the churches must be aggressive in addressing. Compassionate but aggressive."

He does say he'll do it with an abstinence only approach despite the research.

"I believe that it does within each family. Each family must know what they want to teach and what they want to address but the more education the less likely a child is to engage in sexual activities."
Nedonna Pender says, "You can't think that your child will be the one that won’t make you know the bad choice."

Especially with all the temptations out there.