When you are blinded by ideology, you can’t compute information like this:
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.
The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn’t successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.
Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.
As you might imagine, pregnant teenagers have fewer abortions in the states with the most conservative religious beliefs. But, even after accounting for that, the conservative states still have more teenage mothers. It doesn’t matter, the people who could change this simply don’t care.