Teen birth rate on the rise - Do abstinence only programs work?

According to an article in the New York Times on 01/26/10 the teen birth rate is on the rise. This is probably due to the cockamamie abstinence only policy of the Bush Administration. Public health officials have plenty of data to show that abstinence only programs don't work to prevent pregnancies. To use taxpayers money to fund them for ideological reasons is poor policy.

Here is a snippet from the NYT article.

As previously reported, births to young women ages 15 to 19 — a statistic that is available more quickly than pregnancy and abortion data — rose from 2005 to 2006, and again from 2006 to 2007.

Since the teenage pregnancy rate is made up of births, abortions and miscarriages, it is likely that the teenage pregnancy rate rose from 2006 to 2007, as well.

But several experts said it was too soon to predict whether teenage pregnancy and birth rates would continue to rise, and revert to the record high levels of the 1980s and early 1990s.