Whereas according to the National Center for Health
Statistics, more than 700,000 teenagers become pregnant each year;
Whereas despite progress over the last decade, 3 in 10
teenagers in the United States become pregnant, which the United Nations Health
Statistics Division ranks as the highest teen pregnancy rate among comparable
countries;
Whereas after more than a decade of progress, the
Guttmacher Institute reported in January 2010 that the national teen pregnancy
rate rose by 3 percent between 2007 and 2008;
Whereas the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy estimates that African-American and Hispanic/Latina teens
are twice as likely as White teens to become pregnant, as 52 percent of Latina
teens and 50 percent of African-American teens, as compared to 19 percent of
White teens, will become pregnant by age 20;
Whereas teen pregnancy is closely linked to a number of
critical social issues such as poverty, educational attainment, involvement in
the criminal justice, child welfare systems, and more;
Whereas according to an analysis by The National Campaign
to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, teen childbearing costs United States
taxpayers billions of dollars each year as a result of the negative social and
health outcomes for the children of teen parents, such as an increased use of
the child welfare, foster care, and public health care systems;
Whereas research on child poverty rates shows that a child
is 9 times more likely to grow up in poverty if he or she is born to unmarried
teen parents who have not yet completed high school;
Whereas less than half of mothers who have a child before
they turn 18 ever graduate from high school, and less than 2 percent of mothers
who have children before 18 have a college degree by age 30;
Whereas according to the National Center of Education
Statistics, 30 percent of teen girls cited pregnancy or parenthood as a reason
for dropping out of high school;
Whereas children of teen mothers are more likely to be
born prematurely and at low birth weight;
Whereas children of teen parents are 2 times more likely
to suffer abuse and neglect than would occur if their mothers had delayed
childbearing;
Whereas according to several leading public health and
maternal and child health experts, planned pregnancy results in better outcomes
due to necessary resources and support systems are more likely to be in place
than for unplanned pregnancy; and
Whereas the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy, with its partnering national organizations, recognizes the
first Wednesday in May as the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy: Now,
therefore, be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)supports the goals and ideals of the
National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy to raise awareness about the importance
of this critical issue, promote parent-child communication, and invest in
programs that have been proven to reduce teen pregnancy;
(2)encourages the people of the United States
to join with more than 200 national partners, 30 State and local organizations,
and more than 400,000 individuals who will take this year's National Day Quiz
to observe the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and to participate in
activities that will help teens think carefully about sex and contraception,
the possibility of pregnancy, and the lifelong challenges of being a parent;
and
(3)supports a renewed focus on preventing teen
pregnancy, especially given the recent rise in the national teen pregnancy rate
after more than a decade of steady decline, that will allow us to address the
Nation's high rates of teen pregnancies and births and continue the impressive
progress made on this issue since the early 1990s.