First, it was Jamie Lynn Spears. My kids, ages 13 and 16, were as appalled as I was. Their conversation centered around the dysfunction of the Spears family.

Then came Juno, a delightful movie about a pregnant 16-year-old whose personality is so cool, who wouldn’t want to be like her? Except that … she’s pregnant!

So the talk we had about this movie was a little different than the Zoey 101 talk. I could see that my daughters really liked Juno. And sure, it’s admirable that she had the baby and gave it to a rich woman who desperately wanted a child. But I felt compelled to explain that not getting pregnant in the first place would really be the admirable thing.

It must be on the brain these days. Last week, in a meeting with students who write for our teen newspaper, Teenlink, one of the students asserted, with not one bit of doubt, that one in three high school girls gets pregnant.

Uh, no. Our youth editor and I corrected her. That is not true. “Oh, yes, it is,” she said. “It’s just that most of them have abortions.”

Where do kids get this stuff?

In truth, the evidence regarding teen pregnancy and sexuality is mostly good news.

The rate of abortion is at its lowest level since 1974, according to the Guttmacher Institute, respected by advocates on both sides of the abortion debate for the accuracy of its research.

The teen pregnancy rate has been steadily declining, too. It is about 75 pregnancies per 1,000 girls ages 15-19, again according to Guttmacher statistics, as reported by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. That’s 7.5 per 100, less than one in 10 – still too many, but not even close to 1 in 3. Thank goodness.

The teen birth rate did increase last year for the first time in 15 years, from 40.5 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 to 41.9 births per 1,000.

But even with that increase, there’s evidence that teens are waiting until they’re older to have their first sexual encounter. The birth rate continues to decline for younger teens.

So, I guess messages like the one I continually send to my teenage daughters is getting through: Wait. Don’t have sex until you know that you are ready, preferably not soon.

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