By ALEX SANZ Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Jane Fonda says the work of the Georgia-based nonprofit she founded to prevent teen pregnancy has become “much more important” in the months since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion. guaranteed to women in the United States.
The activist and Oscar winner has been outspoken in criticizing the court’s decision, previously calling it “inconceivable”.
While a post-Roe world will be tougher on girls because they’re the ones who would have to have a baby, work to combat teen pregnancy must also focus on teen boys, said Fonda, who was in Atlanta for a fundraiser funds Thursday to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Georgia Campaign for Teen Power and Potential.
“We have to help our boys understand that they don’t have to get a girl pregnant to be a man, that being a real man means taking care of yourself, respecting your body and your partner’s body,” Fonda told The Associated Press. . “Things are much, much harder for boys and girls now and so teaching them skills related to their reproductive health, how to stay healthy, how to avoid pregnancy, how to say no, how to have agency over their body , these things are more important than ever.”
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Fonda, 84, founded the Georgia Campaign for Teen Pregnancy Prevention in 1995 while living in Atlanta and when Georgia had the highest teen birth rate in the United States.
In 2012, the organization changed its name and expanded its mission beyond teen pregnancy prevention to include nutrition and physical activity. The group says its programs now reach more than 60,000 young people each year.
“We have to educate them on how their bodies work so they know how to protect themselves,” Fonda said. “We have to help young people see that they have a future that will be productive, that they can work for, that they can get to, and getting into trouble when they’re a teenager and having a baby when you’re very young will make reaching that future more difficult. much more difficult”.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the birth rate for 15- to 19-year-olds in the United States in 2020 was down 8% from the previous year and down 75% from its peak in 1991.
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana have the highest teen birth rates in the US. Birth rates also continue to be highest among Native American, Hispanic, and black teens.
Fonda served as the president of GCAPP until she moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 2010.
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