In 2022, 25 out of every 1,000 teenage girls in Arkansas gave birth, according to data from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. That number is almost double the national average, with nearly 80 percent of those births from unplanned pregnancies. Arkansas Advocates' latest report makes the case for more robust sexual education across the state to reduce teen birth rates and improve child poverty. Ozarks at Large's Daniel Caruth spoke with Arkansas Advocates Northwest Arkansas Director Laura Kellams about the report.
The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Daniel Caruth: So, Laura, thanks for being here. Thanks for talking to me today. Can you just sort of walk me through a little bit about this, you know, sexual education, health study and what all it was over who was involved in it and what you found?
Laura Kellams: Sure. So a couple years ago, Arkansas advocates put out a report just talking about the state teen birth rate and why we're, you know, for a decade, we were in 50th place, we're in 49th place right now. But we're always near the bottom and kind of trying to look at what we discovered was that teens in Arkansas didn't report being any more sexually active than teens in other states. And yet, our teen birth rate was much higher. And so what is different here in Arkansas is use of contraception and the fact that we don't have sex ed, sexual health education in our schools, and so we if we really want to reduce the teen birth rate, then we need to address what is different in Arkansas. And so we put together a coalition of folks who could really think through how that might work.
DC: Yeah. And so for that coalition, you know, who all was involved in that?
LK: We had a really diverse group of people who represented child abuse prevention advocates, educators, folks who represent rural schools, rural communities, we had lawmakers who are part of it, people from the faith community who could really bring their different perspectives to the table and challenge us on what might be a good idea and what might not be a good idea.
DC: So, what is the landscape here in Arkansas right now? I know there is a law, I guess the only law really about sex education is that you have to teach that abstinence is the only 100% effective method. Sure. But beyond that, what does it look like?
LK: So there's no requirement at all that there be any sexual health education in Arkansas schools. But if they do have it, I'd have to emphasize abstinence as the best alternative. And of course, no one's arguing that I mean, of course, abstinence is the best way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases to prevent pregnancies. But also, we recognize that that's not really necessarily the reality of what's going on. And by not providing young people with more information, we're actually leaving them without the tools they need sometimes to make better decisions.
DC: What are the consequences of this high birth rate? When we do see lots of teen pregnancies and teen births? what implications does that have?
LK: It has enormous impacts, not just on families, and not just on the young people who were having a baby before they want to, but also are throughout the community. So we have a high maternal mortality rate, young people have more complications, that we have a high percentage of who have babies who are born to mothers who are covered by Medicaid, but we would reduce the numbers, if we reduce the teen birth rate.
DC: I think what a lot of people think of sexual education, they just think of intercourse and sex, obviously. But there are other aspects to this education as well. What does that look like?
LK: Sure. Yeah, one of the most important things I think, that we talk about in this report, and like I said, it's on kind of a spectrum of time. So we start as a long term blueprint. And one of the first things that we call for is better information for young people about a to prevent sexual abuse. Right now, there's no requirements for young people to in Arkansas to hear, like what might be a safe touch someone who's maybe in elementary school, you know, one would be calling for them to be learning about contraception and how to use it or anything like that. But we would be calling for them to learn what is unacceptable, what is what is unsafe, most importantly, we want children to be safe. And so that one of the things that we call for in this report is for parents and doctors and educators to kind of come together in a way that what what can we do to prevent sexual abuse.
DC: I know you guys have faced you've said some criticism and some backlash just for putting this report out. What do you say to people who maybe are apprehensive about this, even if it's lawmakers, if it's maybe just a parent in a school district? Like, how do you broach the subject to them and say, here is maybe how you're misunderstanding this, and why we need this to exist.
LK: We are by no means calling for schools to take over this at any point. But something else that we're talking about is after school programs is nonprofits don't have anything to do with schools is trying to get a nonprofit that might be online that can provide information to young people. That's completely separate from you know, public education. And so we would point out that one of the things that we're talking about is comprehensive sexual education that could be offered in schools, but most of the report is about other ways. We can get information to young people where they are and that wouldn't involve like a change in state law, like maybe getting more funding to programs that are already offering really good information to young people.
DC: This has been obviously an ongoing battle to get to increase sexual education. And it's sort of reached ahead at this point where we've, we've sort of, you know, dipped in timbers and went back up. And so why now? Does it feel like a good time to maybe make the charge on this? And do you feel like there's political will or just, you know, within the communities, if there's Wilton to make these changes?
LK: You know, I think that there is there's a huge and important conversation going on in Arkansas right now about maternal health, and that we have the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation. And what are the options that we could, that we can tackle the governor's office and other folks are really looking closely at what are the options we could do to lower that maternal mortality rate. And we've seen some really good access to contraception legislation passed in the last few years, you know, put forward by conservative members of the legislature that recognize that contraceptive access is actually something that could actually help families reduce poverty, keep moms healthier, and, you know, move us in the right direction. And so since we've seen some incremental movement in that area, I think that this is a good way to be part of that conversation to be like if we care about maternal mortality, we care about lowering the teen birth rate. Here are some options that we could implement in our state.
