Colorado proves that education, not slut shaming, is the best way to prevent teen pregnancies.

Courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts:  

President Barack Obama hailed a landmark achievement in his State of the Union address last month: Teen pregnancies in the U.S. have hit an all-time low. But the U.S. still has a teen birthrate of 31.2 per 1,000 teens, nearly one-and-a-half times the rate in the United Kingdom, which has one of the highest rates in Western Europe. 

Colorado may have found a way to close the gap. The state’s teen birthrate dropped 40 percent between 2009 and 2013, driven largely by a public health initiative that gives low-income young women across the state long-acting contraceptives such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal implants. 

Backed by $23.5 million from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Colorado attracted national recognition for its program after Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper announced the results of a cost-savings study last summer. The state saved $42.5 million in 2010 alone, an average return of $5.85 in avoided Medicaid costs for prenatal, delivery and first year of infant care for every $1 spent on the program. 

More important, Hickenlooper said, the initiative “has helped thousands of young Colorado women continue their education, pursue their professional goals and postpone pregnancy until they are ready to start a family.”

But wait, according to the conservatives the best way to avoid teen pregnancy is by keeping sex ed out of public school classroom, get rid of Planned Parenthood, and dress your daughters like puritans?

So gee simply educating both teen boys and teen girls about sex and providing access to birth control can bring teen pregnancy rates down by almost half, and allow young women to live full and productive lives while choosing parenthood on THEIR terms.

Whoda thunk it?