lesbian teens show high risk of pregnancy
Unpublished post, originally written 12/16/08 for my now defunct state of sex education blog on gURL.
A new study done by researchers at the University of British Columbia just found something that might surprise a lot of people: teen lesbians are at a great risk of pregnancy.
According to the study,
“In 1992, LGB students were two to seven times more likely to have been pregnant or caused a pregnancy than their straight peers; in 2003, they were still more than twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy.”
They attribute some of this to girls being the victims of discrimination and found that lesbian and bisexual girls who were harassed at school were much more likely to get pregnant than those who weren’t.
The relationship between discrimination and pregnancy exists for a few reasons. If a girl is being harassed, then she might try to counter discrimination by sleeping with a guy to quash rumors. Also, girls who are harassed are less likely to feel comfortable coming out and may try to hide their sexual orientation by dating guys. Additionally, girls who are lesbians may be victims of sexual abuse and rape.
Lesbian teens are also at risk or pregnancy because they are less likely to get messages about birth control and preventing pregnancy than are straight girls.
Combine all this with the self-esteem destroying effects of being bullied for being gay–which may result in girls having sex with guys they aren’t interested in, and not insisting on using protection when they do–and you have a lot of explanation for the findings of the UBC researchers.
