all of those statistics, as many times as I have seen similar ones, are shocking and cogent....and scary.

What I read between the lines of reports like this is that, although 'individual responsibility' is, technically, the best answer, it appears that the condition of society in general does not support personal responsibility well enough...Young men get more 'points' for conquests than for restraint, even young women (and girls) learn that getting dates and attention often comes at a high price. Add to this 50,000+ years of Nature not caring HOW it reproduces, but fine-tuning us to the responses that ensure propagation, and you have the need to refrain and reduce pregnancies overridden by some pretty powerful forces!

all that wordiness says: The deck is stacked against easy avoidance of unwanted children...especially for the young, vulnerable and uneducated.

Contraception and abortion are the two ways to cope when abstinence fails, whether voluntarily or not. Many places, contraception is forbidden or seen as weakness and morally reprehensible, and thus, not easy to obtain...especially for the younger girls who are most at risk.

We are not likely to teach young people to not desire sex, so we MUST teach them how to deal with it......sadly, I don't see enough of that happening.

Abortion needs to be seen for what it is....a faulty, sad, course of last resort...to be used but not praised while we try to remove the need for it.

I have my ideas, but I doubt the world is ready for mandatory contraceptive implants for 11 year old girls and VERY strict laws regarding rape (after VERY clear warnings from age 11-12 on for young men)....

won't work? We haven't really tried yet.