TUSCALOOSA CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT TEEN PREGNANCY INC

The Adverse
Effects of Teen Pregnancy

The social and economic costs of
teen pregnancy and child­bearing are often high, and these costs can be both immedi­ate and long-term for teen parents and their children. For example, teen pregnancy and childbirth contribute signifi­cantly to drop-out rates among high school girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by age 22, compared with nearly 90% of women who did not give birth during adolescence.

Children who are born to teen mothers also experience a wide range of problems. For example, they are more likely to:

•Have fewer skills and be less prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten.

•Have behavioral problems and chronic medical conditions.

•Rely more heavily on publicly funded health care.

•Be incarcerated at some time during adolescence.

•Drop out of high school.

•Give birth as a teenager.

•Be unemployed or underemployed as a young adult.

Teen pregnancy and childbirth cost
U.S. taxpayers an estimated $9 billion per year because of increased health care and foster care costs, increased incarceration rates among the children of teen parents, and lost tax revenue from teen mothers who earn less money because they have less education.*

Preventing Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy prevention is of paramount importance to the health and quality of life of young people and communities throughout the United States. It is also one of CDC’s six public health priorities. CDC’s efforts in this critical area include promoting evidence-based programs designed to help teenagers develop “protective factors” to avoid teen pregnancy and child­birth.*

Updated Statistics &
Helpful Info

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009, a total of 409,840 infants were born to females aged 15–19 years, for a live birth rate of 39.1 per 1,000 females in this age group. Nearly two-thirds of births to females younger than age 18 and more than half of those among females aged 18–19 years are unintended. The U.S. teen birth rate fell by more than one-third from 1991 through 2005, but then increased by 5% over 2 consecutive years. Data for 2008 and 2009 indicate that the long-term increasing trend has resumed. Teen pregnancy and birth rates in the United States are substantially higher than those in other Western industri­alized nations.*

*Information was obtained from the CDC's website and can be found at thislink:
http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/pdf/2011/Teen-Pregnancy-AAG-2011_508.pdf