I wrote a post earlier this week about something Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante said about how people in his city shouldn’t be having children. Somehow that post set off a conversation about teenage mothers in Santa Ana. One of our readers insisted that someone at Latino Health Access told him that 8 out of 10 teenage girls in Santa Ana end up pregnant out of wedlock.
Well, I called Latino Health Access and I left a message for Ana Carricchi, their Director of Policy. She responded with a link to a website that has all of this data on it. And she also broke down some of this information for us.
Here is the truth about teen mothers in Orange County:
- There were 41,095 births in Orange County in 2005. Of those, 7.2% were to teen mothers.
- Latina teens accounted for 84.6% of that total – which means that 6% of the total births can be attributed to Latinas. This is substantially different from saying that 8 out of 10 Latinas in Santa Ana are going to end up being teen moms.
- The highest rate of pregnancy amongst teen moms occurred in teens between the ages of 18 to 19. They were followed by moms between the ages of 15 to 17. Those 14 and under accounted for .7% of the total.
- The teen birth rate among Latina teens in Orange County in 2005 was 58.2 – that means 58.2 teens out of 1,000. That comes to a percentage of 5.82%. That figure is LOWER than the California rate of 64.3 and the US rate of 82.6.
- It is estimated that in California only 50% of teen pregnancies result in birth. The rest result in abortions or miscarriages.
- Since 1996, the percent of births to teen mothers in Orange County fell from 9.1% to 7.2% in 2005, while the number of births per 1,000 teenage females fell from 54.7 to 27.9, a 49% decline.
- Hispanic teen birth rates fell 53.8%, going from 126 to 58.2 during those same years.
So there you go. No, 8 out of 10 teenage Latinas in Santa Ana do NOT get pregnant. That is a fallacy. And yes the problem of teens giving birth is getting better over time. That said, this is a serious matter. The answer in my estimate is education. Our schools need to do a better job educating teens about these issues. And parents need to do their part too.
We have almost 400 liquor licenses in Santa Ana – and one public library. You think that might be part of the problem? We need change both at City Hall and at the SAUSD.
Thanks to Ms. Carricchi of Latino Health Access for helping us settle this matter with real data.
Art,
Thank you for providing the facts.
An additional fact that will affect the data presented. Communities, counties and states with higher number of teens will show a large number of pregnancies simply because a larger teen population will have a higher number. This is pointed out in the data about teen pregnancies.
A higher number of Hispanic teen girls in an area will show a higher number of Hispanic teen pregnancies relative to the lower number of non Hispanic teen age girls.
Facts are beautiful, are they not?
ALLOW ME…
The teen birth rate among Latina teens in Orange County in 2005 was 58.2 – that means 58.2 teens out of 1,000. That comes to a percentage of 5.82%.
plus
It is estimated that in California … 50% of teen pregnancies result in birth. The rest result in abortions or miscarriages.
seems to equal =
11 to 12% of Latina teens get pregnant in OC, right? And most of them are 18 to 19 years old, maybe even married.
A little over 1 out of 10. VERY FAR from the original 8 out of 10 BS, I must say. Well done.
‘Mahalo’ (thank you) for going the additional mile, Art, in providing CLEAR and CONSISE statistics provided by very reliable sources.
Good lord, you would think that ‘bumbling Bustamante’ would get his stuff straight before he puts his big waterbra in his mouth.
Pudrido must be so proud…..
Art(s) and Vern, THIS is why this blog is superior, OJB don’t suffer fools lightly and demands (or rather some of you are good enough to provide) some justification for what you say are the facts of the matter. Opinions, are wildly varried on here and it makes you think. BS ‘facts’ make you think something else.
Actually, you’re making an equally erroneous assumption and thus proving to be substantially inaccurate yourself unless you can back up your own argument. Breaking down the math you are quoting to the point there are approximately 2,503 hispanic female teen births in Orange County on an annual baisis. Since you aren’t providing data on the total population of hispanic females in their teens in this county nor the city of Santa Ana and whether or not they compose the majority of female teen hispanics in Santa Ana then you can’t claim that Mr Dayhoe’s quotation is in fact false either. It could very well be 8 in 10, you don’t really know do you?
Nice try though, would you like a mulligan?
5thhorseman,
If I could find that data I would post it. The fact however is that Dayhoe said he got his info from Latino Health Access. So I called them and it turns out the info was not as he presented it.
If you can find any raw data to prove that 8 out of 10 Latina teens in Santa Ana end up pregnant by all means please post it here. I don’t think you will find that data. I spent hours combing the Internet for such data and found nothing to support that notion.
Thanks again Art.
Individuals like the 5thhorseman will continue making opinionated arguments in the face of facts because their agendas get exposed and fall apart.
Great job Art!!!
Those that would have us believe that 80% of teenage Latina’s in Santa Ana end up pregnant are flat out misinformed or just plain lying. They would like us all to buy into this garbage so that they can further this steroeotypical and racist garbage.
I am glad to see that you went the extra mile to disprove “pendajo’s” ridiculous allegation.
Sorry, I meant Ben Dayhoe.
Mr. Pedroza,
I am quite flattered that you’ve created a post that directly addresses a comment I posted earlier in the week. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to research the issue further, as my comments were based on what I assumed to be fact from a credible source at LHA.
Please note that I never directed my statement towards any race, but teenagers (especially in Santa Ana) as a whole.
Somewhere along the post, someone threw Hispanics under the bus, insinuating that my comments had racist undertones.
When someone chooses to interject a comment on your blog, only to have someone pull the race card as a rebuttal, readers like myself are driven away from this site.
It’s unfortunate that you’ve put so much work into creating a fantastic blog, only to be plagued by trolls.
I wish you the best in your upcoming race. If you ever want to organize a real meet and greet with myself and my neighbors, you know how to reach me.
Thank You,
Ben “The Pendejo” Dayhoe
Okay – I get all of this. But just let me be sure of one thing. “Busty” is still a pendejo, .. right?
Ben,
You presented a statemnet “8 out of 10 teenagers in Santa Ana become pregnant”.
You qouted this data from Latino Health Access (LHA). This organization deals with facts relative to the Latino Community exclussively. In particular teen Hispanic pregnancy is an issue they are involved with.
So you understood the “8 out of 10” was refering to Hispanic teenagers. I, Art Pedroza and others blogged with you on this matter. You did not argue you were not refering to Hispanic teenagers. You did say teen pregnancies are an issue in every community but refered back again how it is more concerning in the Santa Ana Hispanic community.
Art P. and I were saying to you and others that this issuei s not race related.
I mentioned you must of misinterpreted the data from LHA based on Art’s research on Hispanic teen pregnancies.
You wote back that you had not misinterpreted the data(Hispanic), that you got it right via a direct telephone conversation with a LHA represenative.
Art, others nor I brought the race issue. You directly presented data you say you obtained from LHA that specifically addressed Hispanic teen pregnancy.
We are saying teen pregnancies are a general issue and should not be a race,culture or economic level issue.
You stood by your qoute and said lets move on.
You presented data based on race. We argued the the data presented was wrong based on race.
Art P. corrected the data you presented and now we are TROLLS?
If challenging your opinion by presenting facts will drive you away, then ADIOS Senor Ben.
Instead of attacking, offending and name calling fellow bloggers you should apologize about your error.