A Community Conversation on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Services: Networks of Support, Gatekeepers to Care, and Non-Compulsory Fathering in a Black Urban Community

This study employed Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods to document needs and capacity around adolescent pregnancy and parenting in one predominately Black, low-income urban community. Using an iterative focus group method, we engaged 60 participants in a two-day community conversation. Quantitative data from an enrollment questionnaire and qualitative transcripts of the discussions are analyzed. Our results indicate that the community’s greatest capacity lies in a network of women. Men tend to participate in parenting more holistically once formal paternity is established. Neighborhood women typically introduce adolescents to prenatal care, so delays in revealing the pregnancy to them serves as a barrier to accessing prenatal care. Overall, participants want health agencies to uphold their formal social contracts with the community, but to entrust informal services to community members who have the necessary insight and expertise to deliver support and information that is usable in their social context

Power, Responsibility, and Republican Democracy

A Review of Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People Through Delegation by David Schoenbro

A Response to Professor Laycock

Almost a hundred years ago, the American Association of University Professors established guidelines for civility among scholars, saying that academic exchanges should be set forth with dignity, courtesy, and temperateness of language. I agree wholeheartedly with these principles, and I will not succumb to the temptation to respond in kind to Professor Laycock\u27s review. Tone is much less important than having a frank exchange of views. It is well known that Professor Laycock and I have very different perspectives on the proper interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause. His review and my response should be an opportunity for us to explore our intellectual differences. In this brief response, I will focus on the two most important theoretical points from God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law that he attempts to disparage. The are the heart of my theory, so they are well worth debating