Mississippi: Saying No to Sex

On Sunday, Sept. 9, some Jackson area churches are participating in "White Ribbon Sunday," an event to promote abstinence organized by the Rankin County-based Communities Working to Unite Youth. CWUY is calling on churches to distribute white ribbons to congregants as a symbol of purity and to discuss the health benefits of abstinence. Mississippi's abstinence-only sex education program is in part responsible for reducing the number of teen pregnancies from the mid-1990s, said Don Taylor, Executive Director of the Department of Human Services. There were 75 pregnancies per 1,000 Mississippi teens ages 15-19 in 2003, down from 117 per 1,000 in 1990. In 2004, there were 62 pregnancies per 1,000 teens, according to an Annie E. Casey Foundation report. Mississippi ranks third-highest in the nation for teen pregnancy, behind Arizona and Nevada. The US teen pregnancy rate in 2004 was 41 per 1,000 teens. "There are 12-year-old girls becoming pregnant in our state who aren't really quite sure how it happened," said Craig Thompson, Director of the state Health Department's STD/HIV bureau.

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