MY COLLEAGUE is right that the question of why black teen pregnancy rates have fallen dramatically since 1990 while Hispanic teen pregnancy rates have not is important, and requires research and public-health responses. But I'm not sure why such discussion would be inhibited by a widespread social consensus that women who don't want to get pregnant should use effective contraception, that men should use condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, that parents should pro-actively and non-judgmentally discuss sex with their teenage children and make sure they're using birth control by the time they become sexually active, or that the government should help prevent unwanted pregnancy and abortion through public-health programmes that get more women to use birth control and family planning. All of these statements should be non-controversial in America. They're not.

Many Americans believe that parents should not discuss sex in a non-judgmental fashion with their children, that teenagers should not have easy access to birth control, that the use of condoms should be discouraged because they do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases and will encourage extramarital sex, and that government efforts to prevent abortion or unwanted pregnancy should not involve promoting contraceptive use. I'm not sure why these beliefs should be called "reasonable". Many people's belief that contraception should not be promoted is rooted in a religious belief that extramarital sex is sinful. That is a religious dogma, not a rational belief. Societies that encourage open and frank discussion of sex and sexuality along with responsible use of birth control have much lower rates of teen pregnancy and abortion, and much lower rates of sexually-transmitted infections. Specifically, the post I wrote was based on an idea that seems pretty obvious to me: if civic society groups and government want to reduce the abortion rate, they should promote contraceptive use. This is actually a controversial issue in America, and I find that absurd.

As to why societies with prudish or puritan attitudes towards sex would have higher teen-pregnancy and abortion rates, I think this has been addressed pretty well over the decades. But I really can't do more than re-recommend that Rachael Phelps photo essay, which does a great job of illustrating the way European contraception campaigns focus on responsibility and maturity with a wink towards the idea that sex is fun, while American ones focus on danger with a wink towards the idea that sex is explosive and wild. I think that's a pretty interesting insight that applies in much wider contexts than that of birth control; in many ways sexuality in northern European societies is treated in ways that don't quite line up with American ideas of what's "sexy". Britain seems a bit closer in that regard.

On that side note, it's true that the burdens of hormonal birth control fall entirely on women. So do the burdens of pregnancy and abortion. I'd be interested to hear of any studies suggesting deleterious health effects of high rates of hormonal birth control among European teens; I haven't seen any such evidence. The deleterious effects of teen pregnancy are easier to establish.