[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           TEENAGE PREGNANCY

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I would like to make a very brief comment 
on a very important hearing which was held this morning in the 
Subcommittee on Education, Health, Human Services and Labor with 
Chairman Senator Harkin and myself on the issue of teenage pregnancy.
  In the course of that hearing we heard from the Surgeon General, Dr. 
Elders, and others, about the scope of that problem. It has been 
characterized by our colleague, Senator Moynihan, as a central problem 
in America today. It may well be the most important problem as we 
grapple with teenage pregnancy where we have a family coming into 
existence without any family structure at all. It has ramifications on 
very substantial costs in welfare. It has ramifications on the ability 
of the child to learn. It has ramifications on cost control.
  We see a pattern involving children giving birth to children. 
Children from teenage parents become teenage parents themselves.
  I commend to my colleagues the testimony of Dr. Elders and the 
testimony of three teenagers who came in, two of whom were teenage 
pregnant.
  I shall have more to say about that subject, but in the limited 
amount of time I had remaining I did want to bring this subject up.

                          ____________________