Tom Coburn: “I think everybody involved in this debate is genuinely concerned that we reduce transmission of sexually transmitted…”

“I think everybody involved in this debate is genuinely concerned that we reduce transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, that we reduce teen pregnancy in this country. We all want the same thing. We want a result. What our debate is about is how do we get there. As somebody who has delivered 1,500 teenagers, I hope Members will take the time to hear what I have to say. I am not talking about opinions, I am talking about the experience of 15 years of dealing with teenagers. This weekend I delivered two 16-year-old girls. I delivered babies for them. I want to tell the Members what the real truth is. First of all, out of those million teenage pregnancies that occur in this country, over half occur because of statutory rape; people, adult men, having intercourse with minors, illegally violating the law in every State in this country. So half of them result because we have not decided that we are going to enforce that regulation. That is No. 1. No. 2, if you have a teenager who goes to any type of family planning clinic, 12 percent within the first year will be pregnant, with the best training, the best conditioning, because teenagers uniformly are irresponsible.”