Tulane pregnancy rate strays from national trend

While teenage pregnancy and abortion rates have increased across the country, the Tulane Health Center said that numbers have remained steady at the university.

The Guttmacher Institute recently released a study that found that from 2005 to 2006, the pregnancy rate rose among teenagers. Among 18- to 19- year-old women, the pregnancy rate rose from 118 to 122.3 per 1,000 women.  The abortion rate rose from 31 to 31.5. Tulane, however, has not seen a similar increase.

Suez Wilson, women’s clinic coordinator at the Student Health Center, said that about 12 pregnant students come to the Student Health Center every year. Wilson said, however, that not all Tulane students who become pregnant come to the Student Health Center.

“We have peak times when we get kids who become pregnant, usually related to holidays, leaving their partners [or] coming here for the first time as freshmen, so we see them in September, and we see a couple of them right after holidays,” Wilson said.

Women’s Clinic Director Dawn Bravata-Bauer said that she saw three pregnant students last semester.

“They stay and finish up their semester, have their baby and keep going,” Bravata-Bauer said.

Wilson said that she has begun to see more girls who remain abstinent and who plan ahead.

“I think some of the things I’ve noticed in the past two years, in particular with this year, is I find more planners, whereas we found a lot of people in the last two years who were hooking up and not really thinking about what they were going to do that night,” Wilson said. “Now, I find that people are starting to become sexually active or planning to come here and start birth control. That wasn’t the case the past couple years.”

Wilson said that the increased availability of Plan B may also contribute to the steady pregnancy rates. Students who are 18 years old can purchase Plan B from the pharmacy at the Student Health Center for $30, and younger students can purchase it after receiving a prescription.

The fact that Plan B has become available to adults without a prescription, however, has not significantly affected teenagers across the nation, said Rebecca Wind, senior communications associate at the Guttmacher Institute.

Students can also go to the Student Health Center for other forms of birth control.

The Student Health Center guarantees confidentiality, and though parents may receive a bill from the Student Health Center, they cannot see what procedures students undertook or what drugs students bought.

“They would just see ‘pharmacy,’ and the pharmacy bill might be $15, but it wouldn’t tell them what they had,” Bravata-Bauer said. “Same if they had an exam with student insurance; it would just say,  ‘lab.’”

Even if students have allowed parents to see their grades, the medical realm is completely separate, frustrating many parents.

“They feel like they paid the tuition, so they should have access to their child’s information,” Bravata-Bauer said.

Tulane’s Aetna health care will also reimburse students who receive abortions, which can cost $500, Bravata-Bauer said. The Student Health Center will refer students who wish to terminate their pregnancies to local clinics.

Sexual Health Coordinator Cara McCarthy said that Wellness Services organizes programs and distributes brochures aiming to educate students about protection. It distributed about 19,000 condoms spring 2009 up to 30,000 condoms fall 2009.

“We have no idea how many are actually being used,” McCarthy said. “But Free-Condom Friday has a good following; people know about it.”