The journal article by Jerry D. Marx, Fleur Hopper Faith-Based versus Fact-Based Social Policy: The Case of Teenage Pregnancy Prevention published in Social Work, Volume 50, 2005, is dedicated to the idea of teenage pregnancy in the United States. The authors develop the idea from the evaluation of former President Bush’s policy based on religious approach towards the problem of social legalization, for example, abortion, gay marriages, teenage pregnancy, particularly, calling him the best religious president among his predecessors who did not permit such immoral initiatives. The policy of a wider engagement of different religious foundations and organizations so that to lessen the rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States was provided by George Bush Jr.
The historical cut of the USA foundation gives additional points as of support of the traditional intentions of Americans to prevent social drawbacks by means of a religious framework. It concerns the analysis since the puritans first having settled on the American continent until nowadays. Faith-based initiatives outlined by the authors in the article are faced to the time when “immorality was a reason for poverty” in the society, and every step of human beings was controlled by church-administered policy of “abstinence-only-until-marriage”. This old-fashioned type of solution seems to be effective because there is no reliable alternative for social programs aimed to touch upon teenagers’ souls and minds.
Such an approach to the past is not surprising due to the official statistics. In accordance with it, the US is a major leader of teenage pregnancy rates among other well-developed countries, and the data show such numbers of correlation as of the frequency of such phenomenon in masses: in the year 1997, the rate of pregnancy among teenagers was 93.3 pregnancies per 1,000; the teenage birth rate for the same year was 52.3 per 1,000. (280+) In contrast, in the Netherlands, this indicator in the same year was only 8.2 per 1,000.
Then the evaluation of social, economic, and personal expenditures within adolescents is taken into account so that to make stresses on the educational, financial, and personal social negative factors. In other words, teenagers are not able to behave as parents when being yet children. Moreover, the lack of high school completion is a point that prevents teenage mothers from developing their further work and carrier prospects. This results in low earnings of money.
To prevent unwanted pregnancy and cases of abortion, as a result, the government of the United States provides and financially supports the “abstinence-only-until-marriage” education program for adolescents. Some of the social organizations, namely the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Advocates for Youth, Sociometrics Corporation, Child Trends, etc., made several reviews full of information as for sexual responsibility and ways of pregnancy prevention on the initial stages. These education programs found some sort of positive effect on teenagers but failed in terms of the start of sexual activity among participating teens. Fortunately, the researchers found other programs of how to prevent teenage pregnancies numbered in 50 curriculum examples. Though, the legitimacy of social perspectives is considered to be the core element for the further evaluation, consideration, and prevention of teenage pregnancy rates.
Works cited
Marx, Jerry D., and Fleur Hopper. “Faith-Based versus Fact-Based Social Policy: The Case of Teenage Pregnancy Prevention.” Social Work 50.3 (2005): 280+.