More Education and Action Needed to Reduce Teen Pregnancy in USA

Please Note: The numbers shown in this section are from the most current information we can get from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (2005).

How bad is the problem?

• 34% of teen girls get pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20. That’s about 850,000 teen pregnancies per year.
• Nearly all teen pregnancies are unintended and 81% are to unmarried teens.
• Eight out of 10 teens say they feel pressure to have sex.
• The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.

Who suffers the consequences?

• Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school. Only one-third receive a high school diploma and only 1.5% have a college degree by age 30.
• Close to 80% of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare.
• The children of teenage mothers have a harder time in life. They have lower birth weights. They are less likely to do well in school. There’s a higher chance that these children will be abused and neglected.
• The sons of teen mothers are more likely to end up in prison. The daughters of teen mothers more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

What helps prevent teen pregnancy?

• Teenagers who have a strong sense of their own future and solid emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active or get pregnant at an early age.
• Most people, including teenagers themselves, say teens should try not to have sex at all, especially if they are younger teens. At the same time, they think that young people need quality sex education and information about birth control. They also think that sexually active teens should be able to get birth control if they need it.
• More and more sexually active teens use a birth control method. But the downside is, they don’t always use the method the right way every time they have sex. A sexually active teen who does not use any birth control has a 90% chance of getting pregnant within one year.
• Parents rate high among many teens as trustworthy and preferred information sources on birth control. One in two teens say they trust their parents for reliable and complete information about birth control, and one in ten say they trust a friend.