Mayor suggests combating high teen pregnancy rates

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Mayor Linda Dixon on Thursday said she would like to see

city-run sexual education classes to combat the city’s “dreadfully high”

teen birth rates.

Dixon said she hopes to coordinate with the Costa Mesa recreation

department to offer family-based informational classes about responsible

sexual activity, such as the consequences of sexual intercourse,

abstinence, birth control and sexually transmitted disease, to name a

few.

“I would like to see [classes] in the recreation department that teach

parents to communicate with teens about sex and teens to communicate with

their parents,” Dixon told about 20 people at a Planned Parenthood

conference held Thursday.

The idea is in the early stages. So preliminary, in fact, Dixon had

just thought of it during the conference that announced the results of a

Latino Teen Sex Survey by Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino

Counties.

The Latino Teen Sex Survey, conducted by Cal State Fullerton Market

Research Associates, explored family planning perceptions and practices

and found that Orange County Latino teens experience a higher frequency

of sexual intercourse and a lower level of birth control use than the

national average.

Study results are especially relevant in Costa Mesa, which the 2000

census found to be nearly 32% Latino, particularly its Westside, where

44% of the residents are Latino, according to a 1997 survey.

A recent study by the California Department of Health found the 92627

ZIP Code to have 91 teen mothers per 1,000 teenage girls, which is more

than double the county average of 42.

Officials who conducted the Latino Sex Survey -- which interviewed 448

Latino teens ages 13 to 19 -- cited a lack of education, communication

and certain cultural barriers as reasons for higher percentages in sexual

activity and teen pregnancy.

Jon Dunn, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood

Orange and San Bernardino Counties, said 34.2% of Latino teens said their

parents would be upset if they were caught with condoms or birth control

pills.

Latino parents are typically strict disciplinarians, and teenagers may

be afraid to approach them about sex. To combat fear, people must

encourage open dialogue, Dunn said.

Dunn also noted that Latinas anecdotally have fewer abortions than

girls in the general population, but he could not bolster that opinion

with figures because abortion statistics are not easily tabulated.

Planned Parenthood officials said it is critical to focus sex

education programs on Latino teens because the teen population will

increase by 52% over the next 10 years, and in that same time frame the

Latino demographic will become the largest in Orange County, studies

predict.

“Rises in the teen pregnancy rate could increase if we don’t reach

Latino youth,” Dunn said. “They are a growing population and a sexually

active population. We need to effectively reach out to them.”

Although Thursday’s conference centered on Latino youth, Dixon’s

comments on sex education were universal. She cited reports that show

that teen mothers are less likely to graduate, more likely to live in

poverty or on welfare, and more likely to neglect or abuse their

children.

“We all need to be aware of these alarming facts,” Dixon said. “It’s

not good for anyone.”

FYI

A Planned Parenthood study on family planning perceptions and

practices for Latino teens in Orange County found the following results.

National statistics are from reports conducted by the Alan Guttmacher

Institute.

* 67% of Orange County Latino teens have had sex, as compared with the

national average of 52% in the general population;

* 44% of Latino males report first sexual intercourse by age 14, as

compared with the national average of 30% of males in the general

population;

* 35% of Latinas report first sexual intercourse by age 15, as

compared with the national average of 20% of females in the general

population;

* 48% of Latino teens used a condom every time they had sex, as

compared with the national average of 67% in the general population.