Jackson Free Press

Mississippi has the nation's highest rate of teen births and not, as is often misstated, the nation's highest teen pregnancy rate. Representatives from the Women's Fund of Mississippi cleared up the confusion this morning during a presentation at Koinonia Coffee House's Friday Forum.

Jamie Holcomb, the Women's Fund's program director, explained that while Mississippi leads the U.S. in teen birth rates--55 per 1,000 teens--the state has only the third highest teen pregnancy rate. Sixty-nine percent of 12th graders in Mississippi report being sexually active.

The Women's Fund, the state's largest grant-making organization for women, is tackling the problem of teen pregnancy head-on with an aggressive public-education campaign. On Oct. 3, the organization launched factnotfiction.com, a clearinghouse of medically accurate information about sexual health. The site was developed with a 1.3 million grant from an anonymous donor.

Carol Penick--the Women's Fund founding director--said teen pregnancy comes with high social and economic costs to Mississippi, but it's the latter that the Women's Fund is focusing its message upon.

A Women's Fund report released last year found that Mississippi loses $155 million per year as a result of teen pregnancy and teen births. For mothers, having a baby is more likely to cause them to drop out of high school, and make it hard for moms to get a good-paying job. The report also shows that teen dads are more likely to be incarcerated, which costs the state millions of dollars per year.

"Policymakers listen to you if you talk about economic impact," Penick said.

In addition, Penick called for expanded opportunities, teen-friendly health services and comprehensive, medically accurate sexual education. Although she called the Legislature's bill to require schools to choose abstinence-only or abstinence-plus sex-ed curriculum imperfect, Penick said she was pleased that 71 of the state's 152 school districts opted for abstinence plus.

So far, Penick is encouraged with the attention policymakers are devoting to the issue. That includes Gov. Phil Bryant, who recently convened a teen pregnancy task force and held a series of listening sessions around the state.

"If we can change the life of a woman, we can change the lives of her family," she said.

10/5 Update: This article reflects a correction. An earlier version misstated the Women's Fund teen-pregnancy prevention website as "www.factorfiction.com." We apologize for the error.