Battling Latino Teen Pregnancy - Teen pregnancy rates decreased 29 percent for blacks and whites in the 1990s, compared to just 19 percent for Latinas, according to one group’s research

Along with many of her Latina friends at her middle school in Southeast Washington, D.C., three years ago Beverly Zeleya treated sex lightly. No one told her about contraception, so she didn’t use it. As a result, she wound up pregnant and had a baby boy at the age of 13. Now in high school and a good deal wiser, she observes the same reckless behavior among her peers there. Many attend “skipping parties”—as in skipping school—where they shed their inhibitions with the help of alcohol, pot and other drugs and hook up with guys who are usually older than they are. “If the girl likes the guy, they will hang out with them and they don’t think twice,” says Zeleya. “They just think once.”

That despairing portrait is no aberration. Though teen pregnancy rates are declining generally, they remain stubbornly high for Latinas and blacks. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 51 percent of Latina teens become pregnant at least once before reaching 20—a full 20 points higher than the national average. While that figure is still lower than the 58-percent rate for African-Americans, it’s declining at a considerably slower pace: teen pregnancy rates decreased 29 percent for blacks and whites in the 1990s, compared to just 19 percent for Latinas. Part of the reason: current educational programs aimed at the Hispanic community are failing to connect culturally, say Bill Albert and Ruthie Flores of the National Campaign’s Latino Initiative, which was launched this spring. Their project seeks to bridge the divide with a recently completed educational manual—the first of its kind—that will be distributed to schools, community groups and health clinics across the country in November.”*

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