| Week of September 15, 1996 | by F.R. Duplantier |
There is one thing we can do about escalating teen pregnancy rates: Prosecute the men responsible, for statutory rape.
"A recent study by the Population Reference Bureau found that about two-thirds of births to teenage girls nationwide are fathered by adult men age 20 or older," reports Gracie Hsu of the Family Research Council in a recent issue of Family Policy. Hsu says "the rise in statutory rape is the tragic and predictable conse-quence" of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. "As sex was severed from the context of marriage and perceived barriers to personal 'freedom' were torn down, the door was opened to a 'liberation' in which predators were given easier access to the most vulnerable in our society."
The source of the problem can be found in "the breakdown of the intact, two-parent family unit," says Hsu. "Over the last 25 years, the change in family patterns has been dramatic. It used to be that the man in every girl's life was her father. He was her protector and provider, shielding her honor and ensuring her safety." It's not that way anymore. Today, "fewer fathers are around to protect and defend their daughters' safety. And, with more girls lacking the love and attention that only a father can give, more of them are vulnerable to abuse."
"Laws against statutory rape were originally designed to protect adolescent girls -- typically aged 16 and under -- from sex under any circumstances, regardless of whether there was 'consent,'" says Hsu. "These laws were premised on the belief that young girls were too immature to be having sex" and incapable of giving "meaningful consent." But the states succumbed to the sexual revolution and changed their laws "to reflect more permissive cultural attitudes." Some lowered the age of consent, and most became lackadaisical about prosecuting statutory rapes.
"The most direct way to address the problem of statutory rape is through the law enforcement system," says Hsu. "Efforts must also be made to change the rhetoric and perception under which minors are viewed as mature decision-makers." Hsu argues that states should "seriously consider raising the age of sexual consent laws to mirror the age of marriage laws." She says such a policy "would not only allow states to legally prosecute the statutory rape cases which occur during the later teen years (ages 16-17), but it would also help to re-link sex to its proper context within marriage."
Gracie Hsu sees the rise in the incidence of statutory rapes as "a natural consequence of family breakdown and its subsequent effects on culture and the law." She argues that "what children need now is what they have always needed -- for adults to protect their innocence. They need fathers and mothers who will love and supervise them, laws that punish statutory rapists, and a culture which values and upholds the sacredness of marital sex, the permanency of marriage, and the authority of parents."
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