Working with the Media to Promote Teen Pregnancy Prevention

TABLE 4Sample facts and stats sheetMAKING IT HAPPEN132Taxpayers pay a high price for teen childbearingTotal: $6.9 billion ($2,831 per teen parent)$0.1$1.7$1.4(estimated annual costs to taxpayers ofteen childbearing, 1998 dollars)■ Lost Tax Revenues■ Public Assistance Expenditures■ Health Care Costs for the Children of Teen Mothers■ Foster Care Costs■ Criminal Justice Costs$2.7$1.0• The teen birth rate has declined slowlybut steadily for 6 years. In 1986, thebirth rate reached 50.2 births per 1,000females ages 15-19, its lowest point inmore than half a century. Between 1986and 1991, the teen birth rate rose byone-fourth, peaking at 62.1 per 1,000females in 1991. Since 1991, the rate hasdeclined by approximately 16 percent, to52.3 per 1,000 in 1997.• The younger a sexually experiencedteenaged girl is, the more likely she is tohave had unwanted or non-voluntary sex.Close to four in ten girls who had firstintercourse at 13 or 14 report it waseither non-voluntary or unwanted. 58050How bad is the problem?• The United States has the highestrates of teen pregnancy and births inthe western industrialized world.Teen pregnancy costs the UnitedStates at least $7 billion annually. 1• More than 4 out of 10 young womenbecome pregnant at least oncebefore they reach the age of 20-nearlyone million a year. 2 Eight in ten ofthese pregnancies are unintended 3and 80 percent are to unmarriedteens. 4Teen birth rates are dropping but remain high401974 1978 1982 1986 1990 19941972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996——•—— Births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19Teen mothers are less likely tocomplete high school6050402032%68%Who suffers the consequences?• Teen mothers are less likely to completehigh school (only one-third receive ahigh school diploma) 6 and more likely toend up on welfare (nearly 80 percent ofunmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).7 The children of teenage mothershave lower birth weights, 8 are more likelyto perform poorly in school, 9 and are atgreater risk of abuse and neglect. 10 Thesons of teen mothers are 13 percentmore likely to end up in prison while teendaughters are 22 percent more likely tobecome teen mothers themselves. 110Teenage Mothers:Educational Attainment by Age 30■ High School Diploma■ No High School Diploma