Teenage pregnancy isn't typically thought of as a problem for sexual minorities — yet their risk of pregnancy is often higher. The possible explanations are complicated.
Cleveland youth shared this week personal stories to underscore the importance of the projects they proposed to police, community and nonprofit leaders in their city.
Mackenzie Mays is a reporter for the Fresno Bee. Her series on teen pregnancy and sex education was done as a fellow with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism....
"The community engagement process pushed me out of my reporting comfort zone, and not only led to new sources but strengthened the relationships I had with previous sources," writes Fresno Bee reporter Mackenzie Mays.
Half of California’s 10 counties with the highest teenage birth rates are in the Central Valley, despite statewide record lows in teen births. Even so, the Valley lacks programs that help boys understand the responsibilities of sex and parenthood.
The San Joaquin Valley is home to some of the California's highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. As part of a series on sex education and teen pregnancy, The Fresno Bee found out what some women wished they would have learned about sex when they were younger.
The neighborhood a child grows up in may be the biggest contributor to teen pregnancy rates. And one way to reduce the number of teen pregnancies is to provide structure, like after-school activities, to teens in needy neighborhoods.
Before the California Healthy Youth Act went into effect last year, Fresno Unified was one of a few school districts that didn’t teach comprehensive sex education and pushback against such lessons remains.
While U.S. teen birth rates have continued to decrease across all races and ethnicities, disparities persist. In 2014, nearly 75 percent of the teen births in Fresno County California were to Hispanic mothers.
Research has shown that sex education results in fewer teen pregnancies, but in California's politically conservative San Joaquin Valley, there is a history of strong push-back against sex ed.
