 
Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Rates of teen pregnancy have steadily declined since the early 1990s. The most recent data available, 2002, reflects a 36 percent decrease for those age 15-19 since 1990. In 1990 the rate was 117 per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2002 the rate was 75 per 1,000. Even given significant decrease the Untied States still has the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the western industrialized world. Thirty-one percent of young women still become pregnant before they reach the age of twenty. A teen mother is less likely to finish high school, more likely to end up on welfare and more likely to have a lower birth weight baby. The children born to teen moms are more likely to receive insufficient health care, insufficient parenting and suffer from learning disabilities. Even though the rate of teen pregnancy in the United States has declined one- third since the early 1990s teen childbearing still costs at least $9.1 billion annually in public sector costs according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. This project informs legislator about the latest data available, including information about successful programs and collaborations and research on what works to prevent teen pregnancy.
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