Jamie Lynn Spears is a big, big reminder that statistics reflect general trends and don’t always hold true for each individual: The nationally prominent Guttmacher Institute produced a report on U.S. pregnancy statistics, updated for September 2006, showing that the teenage pregnancy rate in this country is at its lowest level in 30 years, down 36 percent since its peak in 1990.

Obviously, little Jamie Lynn didn’t get this message; nor have the 750,000 teens between ages 15 and 19 who also get pregnant yearly.

The Guttmacher report concluded the downturn in pregnant teenage girls was due to increased emphasis on abstinence and changes in contraceptive practices — including more use of contraception, we’d assume.

But young and even older women — and men — often get tangled up in temptation and passions that preclude stopping for condoms, and prevent second thoughts about going ahead with unprotected sexual intercourse.

After all, if we all were perfect when it came to our sexual drives, we wouldn’t be seeing increases in HIV infections among adults older than 50. If Grandma can’t protect herself, one might argue, who can?

But Spears, the younger, seems to be taking full responsibility for this outcome.

When asked what message did she want to send to other teens about premarital sex, Jamie Lynn told a magazine interviewer: “I definitely don’t think it’s something you should do; it’s better to wait. But I can’t be judgmental, because it’s a position I put myself in.”

This seems to mean the sex was consensual, a question that wasn’t even raised in the stories and interviews following the announcement.

Jamie Lynn’s mother, Lynne Spears, told a magazine interviewer about the pregancy: “I didn’t believe it because Jamie Lynn has always been so conscientious. She’s never late for her curfew. I was in shock. I mean, this is my 16-year-old baby.”

Exactly. But babies have babies and that has always been a concern, even if, in today’s culture, birth control pills are readily available to any woman who is sexually active, and condoms are on display at any drugstore that a teenage guy might pass.