Gov. Phil Bryant urges teens to avoid early parenthood at conference

Gov. Phil Bryant urges teens to avoid early parenthood at conference

JACKSON, Mississippi — To fight Mississippi’s highest-in-the-nation teen birth rate, is it best to give young people detailed information about contraception or to just tell them to abstain from sex before marriage?

Separate conferences Thursday at the Jackson Convention Complex offered competing views.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant’s office sponsored a conference that was, at times, like a church service complete with emotional testimony from young adults who regret having been sexually active when they were teens.

AP
12/7/12