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by Freegrace at 11/1/2009 10:13 PM CST

In a recent blog discussion entitled 15 Abortions in 17 Years we discussed several issues that might contribute to teenage pregnancy and abortion.

Some of our readers challenged the Christians to consider many issues that could potentially curb teenage pregnancy and subsequently abortion. Some of the most popular suggestions were: making condoms more available, sex education in school and better health care.

However, one thing was left out that apparently has a big impact on teenage pregnancy: television. A recent study by the Rand Corp found that “teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV are twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age 20.”

Sadly, very few people really care enough about the fact that too many of our teenagers are learning about sex through TV and pornography (studies like this should demonstrate that pornography is anything but victimless). Handing out condoms in school might help some (studies show that 83% of female teens and 91% of male teens have used contraceptives so that doesn’t seem to be a major solution for teenage pregnancy) but the reality is most of these kids watch TV shows in which young people regularly participate in sexual activity at a young age with few consequences. Movies about high school (e.g. American Pie) are often rated R meaning that the content is inappropriate for someone younger than 18 to watch.

It might be time for Americans to demand better entertainment from the movie and television industry (for a great discussion on this issue see Hollywood-vs-America by Michael Medved). While parents should take the lead on sex education, the entertainment industry needs to be more responsible in exactly what it is teaching young people and the impact it has.