Hmm...

Trey Smith

Mississippi has the highest teen birthrate in the nation while New Hampshire has the lowest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, following up on a report that found the incidence of pregnancy among U.S. teens was falling.

Mississippi reported 55 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2010, more than 60 percent above the U.S. average, according to state data released on Tuesday. New Hampshire's rate was less half the national average at 15.7 births for the same age group.

Teen birth rates were higher in the South and Southwest and lower in the Northeast and Upper Midwest...
~ from Mississippi Teen Pregnancy Rate Highest in US via Reuters ~

You want to take a wild guess as to which state, according to the Gallup Poll, is the most religious? Oh yes, this is too rich to make up: Mississippi!

Even MORE interesting is that New Hampshire is tied with Vermont as being the least religious state.

So, let's review. Mississippi, a state deep within the famed Bible Belt, has the highest teen birthrate in the country. New Hampshire, one of the most godless states, has the lowest teen birthrate. To add insult to injury, most all of the other states in the Bible Belt have high teen birthrates too.

If you listen to what evangelicals say -- fundamentalists make up a large percentage of churchgoers in the Bible Belt -- it's those godless states in the northeast and far west whose non-Christian ways are leading this country to ruin. If this were true, then why can't the evangelicals keep THEIR kids from having babies?

My theory is that, when a group spends an incessant amount of time and energy repressing something as natural as human sexuality, you are inviting [rebellious] teens to see what all the fuss is about. When you do everything possible to try to keep teens away from something that feels good, you're inviting them to engage in the very activity you do not want them to engage in.

And since you spend all your time saying, "Bad, Bad," there's little time left to discuss important information like responsible sexual behavior AND birth control.