Dear Mr. Federal Way,

Recently, you replied to a business owner in Federal Way regarding the city’s new economic development plan. You said if you were going to pitch a reality TV show in Federal Way, one of your pitches would be: “13 and Pregnant — for the Third Time in Federal Way.”

While I recognize your column is award-winning in the humor department, there’s really nothing funny about 13-year-olds becoming pregnant in our community — or anywhere else, for that matter.

Elected city officials and politicians need to do their homework. If they really want to improve the quality of our community, economically and otherwise, they should all be advocating for a comprehensive sexuality education initiative, with an emphasis on birth control education and availability.

You see, even though American and European teens are sexually active at similar rates (Guttmacher Institute), the U.S. teen birth rate is five times that in both France and Italy, and 10 times Switzerland’s rate. (Population Reference Bureau, Advocates for Youth, National Institute for Health). And, according to the Center for Disease Control, more than four out of five pregnancies in U.S. women age 19 and under are unintended.

If those public officials really cared about saving the government money, impacting poverty levels and reducing abortions, they’d be all over free birth control and education about how and when to use it, instead of slashing public health funding for family planning and supporting abstinence-only speakers in local high schools.

Remarkably, Medicaid spends an average of about $12,000 per birth (Guttmacher, 2013), and yet our country spends only $8 per teenage girl on programs to avoid teen pregnancy (Brookings).

But we’re a scared and short-sighted people, Mr. Federal Way, making jokes about 13-year-olds getting pregnant instead of doing something about it.

Sadly, the joke ends up on our community, and on pregnant teens who don’t finish high school and end up in a cycle of poverty for lack of birth control access and education.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently urged doctors to recommend long-acting reversible contraceptives for girls and young women who are sexually active.

And, a recent study in St. Louis where free birth control (including long-acting reversible contraceptives) was offered, resulted in an astonishing 75 percent drop in both the rate of pregnancy and abortions among sexually active teens (CHOICE Project).

I bet if we had a local story like that, Sen. Mark Miloscia, Rep. Linda Kochmar and Rep. Carol Gregory would all do a happy dance together. And we could have that story, if they’d all advocate for funding for and access to free birth control for those 13-year-olds and their older counterparts.

Asking teens to be responsible about sex is great, but let’s make sure our local politicians and city officials are acting responsibly, too, by ensuring effective family planning information and services are provided to those teens.

And that, Mr. Federal Way, is everybody’s business.

Amy Johnson, MSW, is a trainer, educator and coach in the Pacific Northwest. She is co-author of the books, “Parenting by Strengths: A Parent’s Guide for Challenging Situations” and “Homegrown Faith and Justice.” Amy facilitates classes and workshops in the Puget Sound area and online. She specializes in working with parents and in sexuality education. Amy can be reached at comments@diligentjoy.com.