Several Iowa communities have launched programs called "Girl Talk" which target middle school girls with a message about pregnancy. Tiffany Larson, the adolescent pregnancy prevention coordinator for Empowerment Hamilton County, says the website " stay teen-dot-org " offers valuable advice to girls and boys.
Larson suggests Iowa teens take the online quiz to understand some of the consequences of having sex too soon, saying the quiz "challenges young people to consider what they would do in a number of risky situations." With the quiz being online, Larson says it offers teens the chance to read over the questions and choose honest answers.
The quiz gives different scenarios which the teen can take alone or with a parent. There’s also a study guide for discussion that can be downloaded. While the teen pregnancy rate has been falling for years, Larson says the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any western industrialized country.
She says there’s still a need for pregnancy prevention, even though the teen pregnancy rate has declined in recent years. For more information, visit the website " www.iowafuturenet.org " or the site mentioned earlier, "www.stayteen.org". May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.
