Social Policy & Services Taskforce on Teen Pregnancy

1. Social Policy & ServicesTaskforce on Teen Pregnancy Jessica Naddaff Ashley Talbert Wendy Huang Blayne Lopes

2. Understanding the Problem • After dropping steeply since 1957, America’s teen birth rate began edging up in 2005. CQR 265 • Between 1990 and 2005, the teen pregnancy rate decreased 41 percent before rising 3 percent between 2005 and 2006. • “In fact, for the past 10 years we've had a very strong downward trend in teen pregnancies. It ticked up in 2005 and 06. And people got very worried that we were on our way upward again. It looks as though this is not a trend, that we are continuing the stabilization that we've seen in this area.” NPR • About 75% of teen births are to girls between the ages of 18-19. • Factors at play – less use of contraception, less fear of AIDS, cultural norms etc. • At least 8/10 teen girls who give birth end up as a single mother. CQR 267 • Sharp political debate over best approach to sex education • On most measures of well-being, including education, workplace attainment, and wage levels, the statistics are bleak for teenage moms.

3. Historical Background • Decline since 1957, rising since 2005. • Since late 1990s federal governement has spent $2 million on abstinence only programs despite little to no evidence that they are effective. • Insert CQR Graph page 269 – Teen Pregnancy Highest in U.S. • http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/Briefly_TeenPregRates_1988-2006.pdf • See Chronology on page 275 in CQR Res.

4. Pop Culture • Bristol Palin • Jamie Lynn Spears • 17 girls at Gloucester High School “a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.” – See Time Magazine • MTV 2009 – “16 and Pregnant” & “Teen Mom” • Teen Media Project - which recently completed a study into the images seen by girls between the ages of 12 and 14. The research showed that kids who had "heavier sexual media diets" became more than twice as likely to become sexually active by the age of 16. "In the context of parents still not comfortable talking with their children about sex, with schools talking only about abstinence until marriage and with religion saying it's still a sin, the media have become very powerful sex educators," she argues.NPR

5. Race • In 2006, the teen pregnancy rate among Hispanic and black teen girls age 15-19 was more than two and a half times higher than the teen pregnancy rate among non-Hispanic white teen girls age 15-19. • 2006, the teen pregnancy rate among Hispanic and black teen girls age 15-19 was more than two and a half times higher than the teen pregnancy rate among non-Hispanic white teen girls age 15-19. • The teen pregnancy rate increased for every racial/ethnic subgroup between 2005 and 2006 (2% among non-His- panic white teen girls, 3% among black teen girls, and 1% among Hispanic teen girls).

6. Latina Teens • http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/FastFacts_TPChildbearing_Latinos.pdf • Key Facts • 52% of Latina teens get pregnant at least once before age 20—nearly twice the national average. • Latinas have the highest teen pregnancy rate and teen birth rate of any major ethnic/racial minority in the country, according to the most recent data available. • Latina teen birth rates have declined about half as fast as non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black teens.

7. African American Teens • http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/FastFacts_TPChildbearing_Blacks.pdf • 50% of black teen girls get pregnant at least once before age 20—nearly twice the national average. • Despite an increase between 2005 and 2006, the pregnancy rates among black teen girls have declined dramatically over the past fifteen years.

8. Age • The teen pregnancy rate for girls age 15-17 was 38.9 per 1,000 girls in 2006. • There was an increase of 2% between 2005 and 2006, and an overall decrease of 48% since 1990. There were approximately 246,250 pregnancies in 2006 to girls age 15-17. • The teen pregnancy rate for girls age 18-19 was 122.3 per 1,000 girls in 2006. There was an increase of 4% between 2005 and 2006, and an overall decrease of 29% since 1990. There were approximately 496,730 pregnancies in 2006 to girls age 18-19.

9. Socioeconomics – from CQR • A very high proportion of teen births occurs in low-income families. In a 2009 analysis, the NCPTUP found that 28% of teen births occurred in families with incomes below the poverty line. 31% of teen births occired in families with incomes ramgomgbetweem the poverty level and twice the poverty level. • This has stirred most of the federal interest since babies born to poor families are more likely to end up needing taxpayer-supported benefits, especially if their parents haven’t completed their educations and have slim workplace prospects.

10. TKTK • a mother's education and her aspirations for her children, her educational aspirations for her children are actually a better predictor of child outcomes than her marital status.

11. Demographics & Their Impact on Isms • Racism & Classism – poorest schools needed fed $ most, which was for abstinence-only, therefore, abstinence-only message targeted at minorities & poor people bc they are most likely to be reliant on federal assistance. • Sexism – de-emphasis on condoms reduces role of teen boys in responsibility. • Heterosexism – emphasis on postponing till marriage emphasizes heterosexist norms since ongoing debate about legality of gay marriage…will be interesting to see how that changes now that Obama has ordered courts not to uphold DOMA. • Ableism • Ageism

12. Value, Ideological, Civil, and Human Rights Dilemmas • How do these relate to isms • THE DEBATE ABOUT SEX EDUCATION IS REALLY ABOUT VALUES – Abstinence education teached that school-age children sholud abstain from sex until they have at least graduated high school; that sex should involve love, intimacy, and commitment – qualities most likely to be found in marriage and that marriage benefits children, adults, and society. • Abstinence only from 1980’s to now. CQR • Bush – abstinence education aimed at unmarried people through 29 – why would federal government support messages to grown adults about how to conduct their sex lives. • Also, message downplayed effectiveness on condoms, which reduces disease-prevention. • Big abstinence-until-marriage, pro-marriage message throughout 90’s but in recent years state and local commitment to the idea began to wane. States cited lack of evidence that abstinence education worked. More recently, big school districts flipping to comprehensive sex ed. • With economic issues, postponing families until completing school is as much an economic and workforce imperative as it is a personal or family issue. • How do clients and advocates use social action and rights moventsto achieve social justice. • Change in cultural norms? “Anything-goes culture” Unmarried parenthood less stigmatized today – most women get married later in life. • Debate over best approach – comprehensive sex ed? “Sound science and sensible public policy.” • Landing squarely on the side of science

13. Resource Related Dilemmas • Funding - • culturally competent services • geographic access • Living in poverty associated with teen pregnancy & childbearing • Lack of access to contraceptives associated with teen pregnancy & childbearing • Having parents with low levels of education “” • Poor performance in school “” • Growing up in a single-parent family”’ • Effective Technologies – until very recently, no $ for research into effectiveness of abstinence-only programs. Only with Obama that programs are funded based on EBP. • Urban and rural communities – due to great financial needs and pressure to improve test scores in in urban schools, they were initially very quick to request federal funding for abstinence only programs so that they didn’t need to develop their own. • Focus on education

14. Current Local, State and Federal Policies and Programs • Major overarching policies and programs • -from CQR – Federal welfare programs have focused on two main strategies for averting teen and other unmarriedpregnancies: • 1) Promoting abstinence until marriage • 2)Tightening the rules under which single and teen mothers could get government support for their families. • Under current law, teen moms can’t get benefits while they’re getting a 13th year of education – such as completing a certificate program to become a medical office assistant. • Current welfare law was specfically designed to bring more mothers into the workforce, so it is ironic that no support is provided for 13th year programs, which train people in specific job skills. • Today, most states require that schools teach at least a minimum of sex education. • 1982 – Adolescent Family Life Act – beginning of Federal funding for abstinence oriented programs. • In 1996, a new welfare law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed and established Title V program to provide up to $50 million a year in federal funding to states for abstinence-only education. By 2009, President Bush’s final budget alloted $204 million for abstinence education. • Obama’s New $110 Federal Investment in preventing teen pregnancy – emphasizes good science, encourages research, and innovation and underscores the need to tackle too-early pregnancy and parenthood. 2011 proposes higher funding. • First major commitment of federa funding that places a premium on evidence-based, proven approaches. • Other relevant policies and programs • Bush “abstinence only” vs Obama “EBP” policy • 2009 Obama announced major change in federal sex ed funding – federal funds awarded to EBP programs.

15. Specific Recommendations for Policy Solutions and Social Action • The following are policies and ideas that, if implemented, would advance TKTK…. • Affordable child care and financial support for career-training programs would help teen mothers reach educational and economic success. Education = keys to kingdom. • The ultimate well-being of children born to teen mothers depends heavil on the young families having adequate finances in early years. • Children with unmet early nutritional, medical, educational and other needs have their development stunted in many ways. “You either pay now or you pay later in a different form.” CQR • No nonsense, reality facing approach.