Abstinence Education (only?)

Texas, which is Ground Zero
for abstinence education,
has one of the highest
teen pregnancy rates in the country.


President Obama’s 2010 budget
would end nearly all federal funding for abstinence-
only sex-education and launch a new teen pregnancy
prevention initiative using “evidence-based” programs.
The full details of the budget were released on May 7, 2009
and teen pregnancy groups quickly siezed on this major change.


Statistics
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. Thirty-four percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 -- about 820,000 a year. Eight in ten of these teen pregnancies are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried teens.

Teenage Pregnancy 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. Teen mothers are more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).The children of teenage mothers have lower birth weights, are more likely to perform poorly in school, and are at greater risk of abuse and neglect.The sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison while teen daughters are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

[information obtained from The National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy ]