Teen Pregnancy: The Facts
Teen pregnancy. Has it touched your life? Do you think that it's not a problem we face in the United States? Is it something that could never happen to you or someone you know? In honor of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and the seventh annual National Day to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, find out the truth. Then, find out what you can do about it.
The Facts: How many teen and unplanned pregnancies are there? - 31% of teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20.*
- 750,000 girls get pregnant in the United States every year.*
- About one in three pregnancies in America are unwanted.*
- Despite recent focus on reducing teen pregnancy rates in the United States, the overall teen birth rate increased in 13 states between 2003 and 2004 and remained stable in 3 others.*
- In many developed countries, teen pregnancies rates have gone down due to changes in sex education that include contraceptive education. Teen pregnany rates in the United States are at least twice that in Canada, England, France, and Sweeden, and 10 times that in the Netherlands.****
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that at least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease.
The Facts: Education - Less than half of teen mothers ever graduate from high school and fewer than two percent earn a college degree by age 30.**
- Abstinence-Only education fails to reduce adolescent sexual activity, despite high rates of "virginity pledges".***
- When schools accept federal Abstinence-Only funding, contraception cannot be mentioned, except to discuss failure rates.***
- Abstinence-Only education excludes information about preventing transmission of HIV using condoms, any method (other than abstinence) to prevent transmission of sexually transmitted infections, and the importance of annual pap smears for early detection of cervical cancer.***
- A Congressional report initiated by Representative Waxman of Maryland concluded that abstinence-only curricula contained scientific inaccuracies and false information about sexually transmitted infections.****
- The federal government has provided funding to abstinence-only initiatives exclusively. In one act, the Adolescent Family Life Act (1981), the government allotted $11 million towards these programs. In 1996, the government then gave $50 million more toward abstinence-only campaigns in schools under a revision of the Welfare Reform Act. In 2000, an additional $19 million was given under the Adolescent Family Life Act, and in 2005, the government increased spending for abstinence-only education to $170 million. The amount of federal funds for comprehensive sex education campaigns is currently $0.****
- Since funding for abstinence-only education began under the Welfare Reform Act, there has been no significant change in the rate of sexual activity among teenagers. Individuals under the age of 25 have the highest rates of HIV infections over any other group. There is some evidence that shows that abstinence does delay sexual activity, but only for about 18 months from the completion of the abstinence program. By the age of 19, more than 50% of teens break their abstinence pledges.****
The Facts: The Economics of Teen Parenthood - More than half of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager.**
- Teen mothers are likely to have a second birth relatively soon - about one-fourth of teenage mothers have a second child within 24 months of the first birth - which can further impede their ability to finish school or keep a job, and to escape poverty.**
Sources
* http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/why-it-matters/pdf/CaseStatement.pdf
** http://www.teenpregnancy.org/tooyoung/too_young_fact_sheet.pdf
*** http://thepowerofchoice.net/kit/booklet.html
**** http://www.incite-pictures.com/resources/factsheet.pdf
