[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2104-H2110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PREVENTING TEENAGE PREGNANCY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. I have several of my colleagues who will participate 
with me on this special order as we are talking about the special order 
on preventing teenage pregnancy.
  Mr. Speaker, 30 percent of all out-of-wedlock births are to teenagers 
below the age of 20. That astonishing reality should be alarming to all 
Members of Congress and to all citizens of our country. More 
importantly, the current debate on welfare reform is accelerating the 
need to address the issue of out-of-wedlock teen births. We want to end 
welfare as we know it, all of us say, but we do not want to replace it 
with welfare as we do not want to know it. We do not want to enact 
legislation that leaves a policy of national abandonment.
  As we consider solutions to this issue, we must keep in mind no other 
industrialized nations with the standard of living comparable to the 
United States has a problem of this dimension. On the problem of 
teenage pregnancy, we have the dubious distinction of leading the 
world.
  In January, the national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy began. 
This campaign is a privately funded nonpartisan effort. The goal of the 
campaign is to reduce teenage pregnancy rate by one-third by the year 
2005. The mission of the campaign is to reduce teenage pregnancy by 
supporting values and stimulating actions that are consistent with a 
pregnancy-free adolescence. In order to accomplish this mission and 
reach the goal, the campaign will first work to raise the awareness 
level concerning this crisis. The campaign will reach out to national 
media to help raise awareness and to attract the interest of national 
leaders and organizations. It is critical that our Nation take a clear 
stand against teenage pregnancy and that the position be widely 
publicized.
  Enlisting the support of the State and local media will be a vital 
part of this outreach to strengthen the knowledge base and to educate 
the public on this issue. These actions will force a national 
discussion about how religious, cultural and public values influence 
both teenage pregnancy and the way our society responds to the dilemma.
  The campaign's second focus is to encourage and to stimulate 
innovative solutions through local schools, churches, civic groups, as 
well as local and State officials. The campaign does not advocate any 
plan other than community involvement. Each community would determine 
what would be appropriate and acceptable based on a community's 
standards and values. Let me again emphasize the national campaign 
encourages community involvement, but it does not recommend any plan of 
action. Again, each community would determine the action appropriate 
for their community plan. The parents, families, churches, teachers, 
Scout leaders, community members who know these teenagers best would 
determine what kind of program their communities could use to help 
their young people avoid teenage pregnancy and becoming teenage parents 
too early.
  I think you will agree these decisions should be made by the 
community and at the community level by individuals and families who 
care the most about the greatest need to influence these young people.
  I am delighted to have several people to join me today, and 
Congresswoman Meek of Florida is going to share some of her remarks 
with us.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to bring the 
subject of teenage pregnancy to the consciousness of everyone in this 
Nation, and I think this special order you have tonight will take us a 
long way to doing that and having people aware of what is going on to 
some of our best and most valuable resources, and that is our 
teenagers.
  We all know that statistics show us that the baby boomers now have 
produced a new crop of teenagers, much larger than the baby boomers' 
population itself, so we are beginning to have more and more of the 
problems which you have described here.
  Tonight I am going to take a few minutes and just talk about what is 
happening in the State of Florida. Most people know about Florida as a 
beautiful tourist State. They know about it as the State where the Sun 
shines all the time. They know about it as being a very warm climate.
  The one thing people do not talk about a lot in the State of Florida 
is that our rate of teenage pregnancy is growing. Our rate of AIDS is 
growing. As a matter of fact, we are in the top five in this country as 
far as AIDS and teenage pregnancies. It is something that many of us as 
policymakers have been afraid or maybe a little reluctant to address as 
being a problem. But until we change some of the policies, and I think 
that is where you are on your way to changing some of the policies 
which underwrite what we do with our wonderful teenage children, 
certainly we will keep going the helter-skelter way as we are doing 
now; that is, one State may have a very strong policy, another one may 
have very little, and another one may have sort of a lukeworm policy.
  I guess what we would like to see is that this country would face 
this as a problem, not to sweep it under the rug. Policymakers would no 
longer be afraid or a little concerned about the political 
incorrectness of addressing this problem.

                              {time}  2115

  Just to look at the social significance of teenage pregnancies in 
Florida, and I am talking about births by teenagers who are 18 years or 
younger in the State of Florida, if you will notice, this particular, I 
call it an epidemic, is almost a pandemic. But it is an epidemic in 
that some groups of teenagers, who once did not even have this problem, 
are now beginning to show an advancement in their teens whether they 
are white or black or any other ethnic group.
  However, because of the policy related circumstances with minorities, 
teenage pregnancy incidence is much

[[Page H2105]]

higher than it is among some other ethnic groups, particularly with 
nonwhite teenagers. The growth in Florida since 1991, there were 8,274 
teenage pregnancies. But now it is reduced a little bit because of some 
of the many things we are trying to do in Florida to sort of alleviate 
this problem.
  But I do not think we are doing enough teaching and education and 
teaching youngsters that abstinence is the best policy. I go to the 
age-old dictum that we were taught, that that was the only way to 
prevent teenage pregnancy. Now we say safe sex, we say a lot of things. 
But I think perhaps we may have to go back to some of the age-old 
policies of combating this, that being not forced, but supported by a 
State policy.
  It costs a lot. Teenage pregnancies cost Florida a lot of money. In 
doing so, it takes away some other programs that need the same kind of 
financial assistance.
  The regular prenatal care and delivery of teenage babies costs the 
State of Florida $15.3 million. Now, think in terms of the health care 
delivery system in Florida. If this money could be placed toward 
fighting some of the many other health problems in Florida, then 
certainly we would have had that money to put in that pot.
  Also in Florida, teenagers who have babies usually are at-risk 
babies. The prenatal care is much higher than a regular adult having a 
baby. So these teenagers bring with them certain deficiencies. One is 
that, with many of them, the babies have to be treated through neonatal 
care. That has a very high price tag on it. No matter what you say, 
these things cost money, and we must do our best to prevent them.
  Just take the at-risk prenatal care that Florida spent in 1994 for 
teenage pregnancies; $16.4 million was spent just for the prenatal 
care. This has nothing to do with those who repeat and have a second 
pregnancy after the first one.

  The emergency room and hospitalization is $1.7 million, prenatal 
intensive care, $10.8 million. My hospital in Miami, the public 
hospital, has a very high cost of parental intensive care.
  Also, there is neonatal intensive care. Per client it costs more than 
any other care. In addition to that, many of them during the first year 
of life must be rehospitalized, because you remember the teenager's 
body is not as strong and not built for pregnancy as the adult's body. 
So that is a problem.
  Then what happens when a lot of teenagers have a lot of youngsters? 
Then there is the cost of special education. Up until the time they are 
14 years of age, that carries with it a great cost. I do not think I am 
trying to say that this is cost prohibitive. I am saying the money the 
State of Florida spends with teenage pregnancies, which are usually low 
birth weight babies which need neonatal care, which need very strong 
prenatal care, that it costs a lot of money.
  Then the developmental kinds of services that are needed for the 
babies which are already born with a strike against them, and that is 
like the special education, costs $939 million. That is a lot more 
money, because these children who were born into the bodies of young 
teenage mothers that are not physiologically prepared costs this 
special social significance.
  Then there are the developmental services, $6.8 million. That is why 
it is so very important, when you look at AFDC, at least 8 percent of 
the 8 years of age spends 14 percent in food stamps. If you take 2.5 
years, 14.9 percent, and 8 years for 14 percent, the food stamps for 10 
years would cost $129.8 million. These figures are statistically 
correct, but many times a lot of these figures do not include all the 
youngsters that go through the teenage pregnancy syndrome.
  Medicaid in Florida ran up $40.8 million because of the teenage 
pregnancy problem. The crime, not including the cost, that is $2.6 
million.
  So I think that education is a key to our problems with teenage 
pregnancies. I do not think that it can be done altogether in the 
school. It is a problem in the home, the school, and the community. 
There is a lot to be done, a lot can be done, because right now many of 
the teenagers do not understand what makes them pregnant as well as how 
to take care of a baby born to a teenage mother. There are a large 
percentage of them born in Florida to teenage mothers. In 1994 it is 13 
percent of the babies were born to teenage mothers, and the teenage 
birth rate was very high as well. Repeat births was like 23 percent in 
Florida. I can go on and on.

  I guess the point I am making here is that teenage pregnancies have a 
high cost attached to them, not only in the problems to the teenage 
mother herself, but to the baby.
  Regarding the impact of the teenage mother's baby, as it brings forth 
many things which, I think, if properly educated soon enough and the 
intervention is made soon enough, something can be done.
  Florida has a lot of good programs and is fighting this problem. But 
we have not come to the point yet that we are able to stop that first 
child. Usually through education and through programs, we are able to 
slow down the rate of the second baby. But we still have problems with 
the first.
  I think it is important that you brought this to our attention 
tonight, and I think we have to really put more focus on it. We need to 
look at it because it is interlinked very closely with Medicaid, and it 
is going to cause a problem which many of my colleagues have talked 
about. I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida for 
bringing up the Florida experience. Just to emphasize, the gentlewoman 
shared that indeed there are a myriad of solutions, but basically she 
felt education was one of them.
  In addition to the educational part of abstinence, other educational 
programs of conception are also needed in that area. They have been 
successful in maintaining or reducing the second birth, but not as 
successful in intervening early on.
  So I think there is much we can learn from the Florida experience. I 
certainly want to express sincere appreciation for the gentlewoman 
sharing that with us this evening.
  The gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is with us, and I 
appreciate her joining us.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for 
yielding. Let me thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this issue 
and bringing to the focus of America the importance of supporting the 
National Campaign to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy. I join the gentlewoman 
in the support.

  I support the National Campaign to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy, 
especially enlisting the aid or help of the media, because teen 
pregnancy and too early teen births impact the teenager's health, 
education, and long-term self-sufficiency.
  Educational attainment and poverty are related to adolescent child 
bearing. One million teenagers become pregnant every year, and most of 
these pregnancies are unintended. A lot of it comes from the lack of 
information about one's body, a lack of sex education information, and 
the youngster is simply a child guided by the words of her peers, or 
maybe the individual that has enticed her into a sexual act that 
results in the pregnancy.
  We have heard much about the social cost of teenage pregnancy in 
terms of welfare and Medicaid. One-quarter of teen mothers live below 
the poverty level. But there is also a psychological cost. There is a 
cost in the future of that young mother and the future of that child.
  Advocates for Youth have estimated the annual public cost in 1992 for 
AFDC, Medicaid and food stamps attributable to families begun when the 
parents are teens are $34 billion. I imagine that also includes the 
cost of the prenatal care that they do not get really and the neonatal 
costs that they have when the babies are low birth rate babies.
  However, if we want to address the issue of teen pregnancy, then we 
must assist teens with a multidimensional program that provides 
reproductive health information and access, as well as teaching teens 
to communicate with their partners and their parents. And, yes, I 
wholeheartedly support the teaching and communication of abstinence and 
the ability to build one's self-esteem around the ideas of waiting and 
looking forward to a future and the availability and ability to raise 
one's child with the best resources possible.
  Prevention of at-risk teen behavior should include attention to 
educational

[[Page H2106]]

and employment opportunities. All of us should be concerned when 
intergenerational teen motherhood affects the long-term chances of 
teenagers and their families.
  I believe that teenage pregnancy prevention must be targeted at both 
boys and girls. That is a very important point. I have found times when 
we have spent time with young men, it is very valuable time, to inform 
them that it is their responsibility too; that their manhood is not 
intertwined with the creating of a life, and that that life then 
becomes dependent on them, and their future opportunities may be 
shortchanged because of the responsibility to this wonderful new life.

  Treating teen pregnancy as if it is an issue that affects only young 
girls is shortsighted and is unlikely to be effective. Adult men are 
frequently the fathers of children born to teenage mothers. I hope that 
the link between sexual abuse and teen child bearing are also examined 
by the National Campaign to Reduce Teen Pregnancy. That is certainly an 
issue that I am hoping to address in my district.
  I urge the media, parents, educators, and all those who care about 
children to talk with our young people about abstinence and 
postponement of sexual activity. Teen mothers have approximately a 60-
percent chance of graduating from high school by the age of 25. 
Remember now, a 60-percent chance of graduating, way beyond the normal 
graduation time, but maybe by the age of 25, and only 60 percent, 
compared to 90 percent of those who postpone child bearing.
  African-American and Hispanic teens who delay child bearing to age 20 
are 3 to 5 times more likely to attend college as their counterparts 
who do not delay childbirth. Again that goes back to the quality of 
life of that new life that this young parent would bring into the 
world, the ability of taking care of that child, and warding that child 
away from the ills of life, the social ills, the lack of getting an 
education, drugs, the lack of self-esteem because they have not had the 
nurturing and care that would come about from a more mature parent.
  For an African-American family in which the mother began child 
bearing before the age of 16, the average income is only 96 percent of 
the poverty level, not even the poverty level, but only 96 percent. The 
average income rises to 236 percent of the poverty level if she is 
between 26 to 27 years of age when her first child is born, and 275 
percent if she postpones child bearing past the age of 27.
  I am concerned about teen pregnancy because too-early births impact 
the teens and families in my State. In Texas there were 52,859 births 
to those age 12, underlined, age 12 to 19, in 1994 alone. The combined 
cost of maternity care and newborn care for these teen births in Texas 
was $339,407,639.

  I have visited the Lyndon Baines Johnson Public Hospital in my 
community and have seen the neonatal unit with these very low birth 
weight babies. Loving as they are, and your great desire to love them 
and care for them and cry for them, we also recognize that we are in 
some way diminishing their quality of life by their low birth rate. 
Because of the lack of prenatal care, many of them are born to our teen 
mothers.
  This is something that, if for nothing else, for that child that we 
want to bring into this world, giving he or she the most that we can 
give them, that we should emphasize this effort with respect to teen 
pregnancy. The combined costs of maternity care and newborn care for 
these teen births in Texas, as I said, some $330 million-plus.
  In my district in Harris County, TX, in 1994, there were 3,598 births 
to teen aged 11 to 17. The estimated cost of maternity and newborn care 
for these teen births in Harris County alone was $23,102,758. Just a 
couple of weeks ago we saw the emphasis on teen pregnancy in Texas take 
national status when it was thought that a 10 year old was on the run 
who was about to give birth to a child out of wedlock. We now find out 
it was a youngster of 14. But just the horror of it and the thoughts of 
youngsters having children, and that does occur in my community.

                              {time}  2130

  Let me applaud, however, the school districts, particularly HISD, who 
have several schools that deal with pregnant teens and teens that have 
had children, and in particular, they provide child care for those 
teens. But they also expressed to me the difficulty of keeping those 
teens in school and again ensuring that those children are getting the 
best protection and help that they possibly can, both the child that 
has had the newborn and the newborn, of course.
  It is encouraging that the pregnancy rate among sexually experienced 
teens has declined 19 percent in the last two decades, but there 
remains much that we as parents and friends of teens must do if we 
truly care about our young people.
  I would also like to applaud the teen clinic in the hospital district 
supported by Baylor College of Medicine. That has been an outstanding 
light, Congresswoman Clayton, in prevention measures, in encouraging 
young teens to look differently or in another direction, and certainly 
after the first child, to discourage them from a future birth until 
they get their education and secure a marriage partner and have the 
opportunity to provide for that young child or that newborn.
  There is no one program, however, that will work for all teenagers. 
When we look at the teen programs which have been effective, the teen 
pregnancy prevention programs have approached this social and personal 
issue holistically and comprehensively. That is the key. Adolescent 
pregnancy prevention must include reproductive health, education and 
access to contraception, along with the emphasis of education and 
prevention and certainly abstention.
  The media must take responsibility for the explicit images of sexual 
activity that our children see on a daily basis. Might I add, even the 
media that shows television programs during the hours that you think 
young children are safe, during the 6 to 8 hours, maybe 6 to 9, the 
media has to take responsibility without enforcement and without 
regulation to do that. I am very glad that we have at least passed 
legislation that will give parents the V-chip to ward off violence, but 
it will also allow them to ward off unnecessary sexual activities.
  The Internet, we must be concerned about that, as we saw sexual 
connotations and messages coming across the Internet. We must be 
diligent as parents and guardians of our children to ensure that they 
are viewing the right messages, and the media must help us do that.
  A discussion of the postponement of sexual activity should be coupled 
with developing teens' communication skills and partners and parents. 
Finally, teen pregnancy must focus beyond the sexual activity of 
adolescence. When we talk about at-risk teens, we need to confront the 
environment which our young people are growing up with. When we see how 
early teen pregnancy can impact our children's educational attainment 
and long-term self-sufficiency, we need to confront this national issue 
of adolescent pregnancy and help our children flourish and develop 
their full potential.
  It is key that we support this national campaign. It has to be 
combined with schools and churches, religious institutions, parents and 
nonparents, volunteers and community-based groups and youth support 
groups, so that we can in fact make sure that this is an effective 
effort, Congresswoman Clayton, and it is one that I accept the 
challenge of your leadership, but as well as this national campaign, 
one that I know that we will be working with our community leadership 
in the 18th district in Texas and Harris County to make sure we 
continuously work to put our young people first, but to ensure that 
they provide a good quality of life for the newborn child.

  Mrs. CLAYTON. Well, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas for 
that very substantial statement, and also for her sharing what she 
understands to be a very interrelated problem that is not purely one 
approach. It is a holistic approach. We have to be engaged from various 
sectors, and to recognize the value of having good programs in the high 
school and good programs to encourage people, the young people, not 
only in terms of sex education but their self-esteem.
  You know as I know, young people who feel that they have a future are 
going to not risk being an early parent. So we have to give hope, we 
have to

[[Page H2107]]

give that, and I am delighted that you are going to do your part in 
raising the awareness and giving that positive message to young people 
in your district. I applaud you for what you have done already, hope 
that you will continue that effort. Thank you for participating.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Well, I thank you very much, and I think 
that as I close on one point, you raised a very valuable point. I will 
close on this. When that teen has that first child, we should not 
abandon them, because we can still work with them to stem the tide or 
stop any additional births.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Absolutely.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. We should continue to keep them in the 
system, as well.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. We should stop a national policy of abandoning children 
simply because of the mistakes of their parents, but we should not give 
up on that parent themselves.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. That is right.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Because they made the first error. We can still have 
them turn their lives around.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I think we must do that. Thank you.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. This is not just a debate with women and by women. It 
is a debate that all people are joining, and I am pleased to have the 
gentleman join this debate. We have the distinguished gentleman from 
Virginia [Mr. Scott].
  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to first thank Mrs. Clayton for 
organizing this special order in support of the goals of the national 
campaign to reduce teen pregnancy. Representative Clayton's efforts to 
highlight this issue of teen pregnancy prevention are certainly timely 
as Congress continues to debate welfare reform and children and youth 
issues.
  Mr. Speaker, last month I sponsored a public policy forum on health 
care issues confronting adolescents in the 1990's. That forum was 
sponsored with the Advocates of Youth, a national organization 
committed to public outreach and education on adolescent health issues.
  The four panelists that were involved in that forum covered issues 
ranging from the increase in HIV/AIDS in the youth population to the 
current battles surrounding family life education in school districts. 
Everyone who attended that policy forum agreed that today's youth face 
greater challenges than ever before.
  The challenges presented by teen pregnancy can seem insurmountable in 
light of the correlation between adolescent childbearing and education 
and economic attainment. According to research compiled by the 
Advocates for Youth, the chance of graduation from high school 
increases by 30 percent for teenagers who postpone childbearing, and 
among dropouts, teen mothers are less likely to return to school than 
others.

  The organization goes on to report that early childbearing has an 
impact on the economic status of teens by not only affecting job 
opportunities and marital options and family structure, but 
particularly because of the effect it has on education. In fact, across 
all ethnic groups, delaying childbirth by just 1 year leads to 
significant improvement in subsequent economic vitality.
  Not only does teen pregnancy affect the teen, but it also affects the 
entire community. Teen pregnancy prevention has been a priority in my 
State of Virginia because we have long recognized the devastating 
effects that early childbearing has on teens and their children and 
also on the community.
  Representative Jackson-Lee and Representative Meek both indicated 
that teenage pregnancy caused expenses in their States. The statement 
is true in Virginia. One study found that one-half of all of our AFDC 
case loads, one-half of the people receiving AFDC, began their families 
with a teen pregnancy. You not only have AFDC, you also have the 
related expenses like Medicaid and other social services, so we see 
that it is a very expensive proposition for the community.
  As a result, in response to this we have developed several programs 
to educate adolescents on the issue of teen pregnancy prevention. These 
programs function at the local level and place their emphasis on 
mentoring, parental involvement, postponing sexual activity, and the 
promotion of abstinence.
  In addition, Virginia has a mandatory family life education 
curriculum in its elementary and secondary schools. We have found that 
these programs have been very instrumental in reducing teen pregnancy, 
particularly the programs that focus on education, increasing 
opportunity for our young people, giving them something constructive to 
do with their time, and giving them adult guidance. As Representative 
Jackson-Lee indicated, those who feel that they have a future are not 
the ones getting pregnant.
  We have found that these programs have been instrumental in reducing 
teen pregnancy and, thus, we have provided Virginia's youth with an 
opportunity to grow into adulthood without the burdens of early 
childbearing. These programs share the goals of the National Campaign 
on Teen Pregnancy, and I enthusiastically support both efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not mention that there are 
programs in place right now that have been integral in reducing teen 
pregnancy by offering teens the opportunity for success. These programs 
involve job training, summer jobs and other activities, other 
activities to help them stay in school.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Summer Jobs Youth Program, job 
training, Head Start and other dropout prevention initiatives are now 
at risk because of the misguided priorities in some of our budget 
initiatives. The recently passed omnibus appropriations bill targeted 
the Summer Jobs Youth Program for elimination, and drastically reduced 
Head Start youth training and school-to-work activities. If our goal is 
to eliminate the obstacles that young people face and instead provide 
them with opportunity, these programs must be fully funded.
  Again, I would like to thank Representative Clayton for inviting me 
to participate in this special order, and I look forward to working 
with the national campaign on the important issue of teenage pregnancy 
prevention.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia, to say 
apparently Virginia may be leading the way, and hopefully we can share 
some of your positive and effective programs that you have. We, too, in 
North Carolina are beginning that. There are many programs like the 
Coalition to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, which indeed has helped that.
  I also want to just reemphasize something the gentleman said, and I 
understood you to say that there are special developmental programs 
that we need to have in place, too, if we expect young people to be 
able to have positive opportunity, and those are after-school programs. 
There is a summer training program, and these programs need to be in 
place because there indeed is evidence and research that when young 
people have idle time, and we feel for them because there is a lot of 
idle time is going to come in the summer, even when young people have 
idle time between 3 and 6, between the time they get out of school and 
when they go home, we know also that young people need supervision.
  So we need to interject programs where young people can get engaged 
in that, and I think it is very helpful.
  Mr. SCOTT. You mentioned the time between 3 and 6, between the time 
they leave school. It is also the time, 6 is the time the parents 
finally come home from work.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Right.
  Mr. SCOTT. It is a time they are unsupervised.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Right.
  Mr. SCOTT. Studies have shown that during that time, a significant 
number of pregnancies occur. We also found that those who think they 
have a future are less likely to get pregnant. Therefore, college 
scholarships and other activities designed to make sure those 
opportunities are available must be fully funded, and cutting back in 
that area will increase teen pregnancies.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. My point is to suggest that young people, we want to 
instill responsibility in them and positive behavior, but also there is 
a reciprocal responsibility for society to make sure there are 
opportunities for work and career and positive development there, and 
we in Congress can play a part. Others also must play a part.

[[Page H2108]]

  Again, I want to thank you for participating with that. I also know 
that this is not just one-sided, it is not a partisan view. Republicans 
and Democrats have an interest in this, to prevent teenage pregnancy, 
and I am delighted that my colleague Chris Shays, the gentleman from 
Connecticut, is joining me, and welcome your participation.
  Mr. SHAYS. I am grateful to have this opportunity, Congresswoman 
Clayton, to participate in this very important dialog, and to salute 
you for your taking the leadership and making sure that we as a 
Congress begin to confront what is an extraordinarily serious problem 
for our country.
  I am here to salute you, to participate in this issue, and also to 
compliment and to praise the President for establishing the National 
Campaign to Reduce Teen Pregnancy. I know that you circulated a letter, 
which I would like to read later in this special order. But first to 
tell you that as someone who is chairing the Committee on Human 
Resources and Intergovernmental Relations, we are going to be having a 
hearing on this issue and will obviously be inviting you to help lead 
that off.
  It is incredible, the more I get into it, and candidly, I have not 
spent the kind of time that I should have, but to think that up to 1 
million teenagers become pregnant in the United States, and that 85 
percent of those pregnancies are unplanned and that the vast majority 
of mothers are simply unmarried, to think that teenage mothers are more 
likely to be impoverished, go on welfare and never finish school, to 
think what kind of future they have for themselves and the promise that 
they have for their children who they grow to love dearly.
  I think probably more than anything else in my own childhood, what I 
value the most was that my parents taught me to dream, but my dreams 
were realistic. I mean, I really felt I could meet those dreams. It is 
hard for me to understand how a pregnant teenager, a young 15-year-old 
or 14-year-old who is giving birth is able to think of dreams that get 
that individual, get her out of the welfare cycle and get her the 
opportunity to think of being able to live what the American dream is, 
to think of what it must be like for her children.

                              {time}  2145

  I am stunned by the statistics that say that adult males are the 
fathers of approximately 66 percent of babies born to teenage girls. I 
am talking about adults impregnating young kids, the thought that, 
according to the U.S. New and World Report, that 65 percent of teenage 
mothers are unmarried, up from 48 percent in 1980 and that, most 
importantly, that 39 percent of 15-year-old mothers say the father of 
their babies are 20 years or older. Fifteen-year-old kids.
  I have a 16-year-old daughter, and it is hard for me to comprehend a 
15-year-old daughter, and it is hard for me to comprehend a 15-year-old 
young girl describing the fact that nearly 40 percent of these young 
girls are saying that they were impregnated by 20-year-olds or older, 
and for 17-year-old mothers, 55 percent of the fathers are adults, and 
for 19-year-olds, 78 percent are the fathers, are adults who have been 
involved in this relationship.
  You sent a letter that you circulated, and hundreds of Members of 
Congress signed this letter, and I would love to read this letter for 
the Record. You drafted this letter to President Clinton. You said:
  ``Dear President Clinton, we write to applaud your efforts and those 
who have agreed to serve in the bipartisan National Campaign to Reduce 
Teenage Pregnancy. The mission of the National Campaign,'' quote, `to 
reduce teenage pregnancy by supporting values and stimulating actions 
that are consistent with a pregnancy-free adolescence is,' end of 
quote, ``one that each of us supports, and the goal to,'' quote, 
`reduce the teenage pregnancy rate by one-third by the year 2005' is 
one that each of us endorses.''
  We are trying to reduce the pregnancy rate in the next 10 years by 
one-third. It seems to me obviously like a goal that all Americans 
could unite behind.
  You go on in your letter to say: ``The increase in out-of-wedlock 
childbearing is alarming. Even more alarming is the vicious cycle into 
which pregnant teenagers are thrust. The young women, as well as the 
young men, who become teen parents have few expectations, few ties to 
community institutions, few adult mentors and role models, and little 
hope. Many live in communities where crime and drug use are common and 
where dropping out of school and chronic unemployment are even more 
common. This is a very costly human burden for our society.''
  You then go on to say: ``In addition, teenage pregnancies cause a 
heavy burden on the federal budget, especially Medicaid funds, one of 
the elements of the budget that is spiraling. Food stamps and AFDC 
funds are also taxed by these young people is the dawn of their lives. 
Indeed, teen pregnancy is a strong predictor of a new generation of 
disadvantaged. As poverty is the most accurate predictor of teen 
pregnancy, teen pregnancy is a near certain predictor of poverty.''
  Your letter then goes on in three more paragraphs:
  ``We believe the approach to this problem that will be undertaken by 
the National Campaign is correct. It is critical that this Nation first 
take a clear stand against teen pregnancy and, in doing so, attract the 
interest of more national leaders and organizations. Enlisting the 
support of the national media in supporting and stimulating State and 
local action are necessary steps in the effort to reduce teen 
pregnancy. These and other activities will help to foster a national 
discussion about how religion, culture, and public values influence 
both teen pregnancy and the responses to this dilemma. But most 
importantly we believe the intent of the National Campaign to 
strengthen the knowledge base, to educate, will be invaluable.''

  And your last paragraph: ``The National Campaign to Reduce Teenage 
Pregnancy should not be bound by politics, party or philosophy. The 
situation is urgent. By our endorsement of this letter, please note 
that we stand behind you in the National Campaign. The goal is 
ambitious, but it is within our reach.''
  And I would just salute the President for his establishment of this 
committee, the appointment of Dr. Henry W. Foster, Jr., as the senior 
adviser. He will be coming before our committee to begin that hearing, 
and we are grateful for his participation and for the nonpartisan 
approach which the President took in naming former Senator Warren 
Rudman, a Republican from New Hampshire, the former New Jersey 
Governor, Thomas Kean, a Republican from New Jersey, obviously, and the 
former Surgeon General, Everett Koop, actress Whoopi Goldberg, MTV 
President Judy McGrath, chairman of the executive committee of the 
Washington Post, Katherine Graham. I mean this is a distinguished 
committee and one which I salute the President for forming.
  And again, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to, one, take a 
stand on this issue, to announce that our committee, because of your 
work and the work of others, will be holding hearings to alert the 
Nation of this nearly desperate problem and to hope that we, as 
American citizens, can do a better job of helping to have our young 
kids, our young kids, have dreams and hopes and to let them know that 
they can always be parents, they can always have a child. They just do 
not need to have a child when they are in school. They can grow to lead 
blessed lives, and they can grow to mature as individuals before they 
then try to help a young person grow as well.
  Kids raising kids is kind of insane, and it is, I think, that history 
will look back on our generation, look back on Congress, look back on 
the White House, not just this White House and this Congress, but for 
the last few years and the last few presidencies, and say we were 
really asleep when we should have been awake. I thank you for this 
opportunity.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. I want to thank the gentleman for his very important 
remarks, but also for his important announcement that his committee is 
going to have hearings on this subject which I think is going to be 
substantial, adding to the debate in that you will bring out a myriad 
of problems. One of the problems you identified indeed is adult males 
having some liability and responsibility for this whole problem, and we 
have not been focusing on that. So I am looking forward for the 
deliberation and thoughtfulness.

[[Page H2109]]

  Mr. SHAYS. I look forward to working with you and other Members of 
Congress.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. And we are joined by the gentlewoman from California. I 
am delighted to have Ms. Maxine Waters.
  Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Eva Clayton, for your 
leadership on this issue. I join with you and others in congratulating 
the President for placing this very, very important issue high on his 
agenda. I think whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you cannot 
help but be concerned about the rate of teenage pregnancy. I understand 
over 1 million teenagers are getting pregnant each year here in this 
country and that this rate of teenage pregnancy far outdistances what 
is happening in other advanced nations in this world.
  Mr. Speaker, I have tried to pay some attention to this issue, and 
when I came to Congress a few years ago, I called Health and Human 
Services and asked them what could they do, using some discretionary 
money, to come into an area in my district where this is a problem and 
help us to create a program to deal with teenage pregnancy, at least 
find out what is going on. And so Health and Human Services, along with 
Family Planning, did come into one of the housing projects in my 
district known as Avalon Gardens Housing Project, and we were very 
fortunate that we were able to hire a young woman who is greatly 
interested in working with teen mothers, a young woman who has a 
background in working with troubled youngsters, and she has been doing 
an interesting job.

  We worked with males and females between the ages of 12 and 25 years 
old, and in the first year, after the first year, we are very pleased 
to report that no pregnancies or repeat pregnancies have occurred. Some 
of the young ladies that we worked with had already borne a child, 
others had not, and we hoped to prevent them from doing so. And in the 
first year we have had no pregnancies or repeat pregnancies. But it is 
very, very work-intensive. We find that the young people in the 
program, both male and female, are looking for attention. Many have 
very low self-esteem. Many or all of them are poor. They have very few 
activities. They travel not far from their home in the housing project. 
They do not interact in programs and projects outside of the immediate 
community. They have very little information available to them. When we 
started to work with them, we found that very few knew much of anything 
about contraception.
  And so the 15 to 20 people per day that she is working with are now 
involved in various kinds of activities. Some are athletic activities. 
We have formed a men's club, and we have been able to create 
opportunities to take them out of the community on some trips. I am 
pleased to say that some of them were with us last week when we took a 
group of boys and girls, young men and women, from Los Angeles, so-
called south central Los Angeles, to Selma, AL, the commemorate the 
march from Selma to Montgomery. We did that because we found that most 
of them did not know very much about their history, surprisingly, not a 
lot about Martin Luther King, nothing about the marchers, the work that 
had been done. And in building this self-esteem, we think that that is 
very important, that they understand who they are, the kinds of 
sacrifices that have been made for them so that they could be 
successful in a democratic society, and we think unless there is self-
esteem, people do not take responsibility, they do not feel 
comfortable, they do not have the confidence, and therefore many of 
their actions are irresponsible until you are able to build self-
esteem.

  So we are working very hard. This is but a drop in the bucket to what 
is needed in this Nation to deal with this problem.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. It is a good example that you are sharing with us that 
others can do as well.
  Ms. WATERS. It is, and we are very pleased because we really are 
hopeful. We are very, very optimistic about the possibilities for 
stemming the tide of teenage pregnancies. We believe that you can 
create real prevention. It does cost money, and some of the work that 
is being done that has helped in this area under the title XX is now 
threatened, and we believe that it is important for us to say to 
everybody that, if you really care about this issue, if you want to do 
something to stop babies from having babies, if you really want to get 
a hold of poverty in America, then we will invest some dollars to 
create opportunities for these young people and recognize that many of 
them are from so-called dysfunctional families, families where they, 
they come from one-parent families, where fathers are missing, and the 
cycle, this vicious cycle, continues because we have done nothing 
really to break the cycle.
  We know everything we need to know about poverty, and one thing we 
know for sure is that when poor children bear children, that those 
children are going to be poor, and most likely those children are going 
to be the school dropouts. These are going to be the children with 
health problems. These will be the children who will be caught up in 
poverty and will not be successful. They will drop out of school 
because they are being born into the same conditions that their parents 
were born into when we do not break this cycle.
  And so, Eva, I thank you for creating this opportunity for more 
discussion on this issue. I think we must urge our colleagues to get 
involved in this in a real way. This cannot be just a political issue 
used during the campaign. We have got to commit ourselves to embracing 
our young people, to providing for them opportunities that have not 
been available, to provide resources to get them out of these 
situations. And if we do this, I think we can do something about this 
problem.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. I want to thank the gentlewoman from California in not 
only participating, but also sharing examples of her initiatives and 
what they do in Los Angeles to bring so much hope.
  But she demonstrates one point. As we try to counsel young people, we 
should not think that this is easy, or not intensive, and is costly 
because we are dealing with troubled young people. We are not dealing 
with adults. So you cannot use the same formula that you have in 
counseling adults in family planning. You have to raise the esteem, you 
have to do development, you have to have a myriad of opportunity.
  And I think she raised another point, is that as we are beginning to 
use the whole teenage pregnancy issue in pursuing the debate of welfare 
reform, we should not just do it as a political scapegoating of finding 
opportunity to hit at vulnerable children, we should not have a 
national policy of abandoning our children.

                              {time}  2200

  Certainly as we move toward welfare reform, both sides say we want to 
reform welfare as we know it, but we should not move to welfare reform 
as we do not want it. We do not want a welfare system that, whether by 
accident or on purpose, we have a national abandonment of children by 
saying we will not support children if they are born while the parent 
is on welfare.
  This is not to suggest we are condoning it. We do not want it any 
more than anyone else. But we understand that you cannot punish young 
people by punishing their parents to make them do the behavior you want 
them to do. You have to give them a reason, counsel them, and 
discipline them, and that discipline has to be with having them be 
responsible.
  I again thank all those who have participated. I look forward to 
continuing this debate, that our colleagues would understand that 
everybody here has something at stake. If we do not think we do, I 
think we are missing the opportunity to be responsible as Members of 
Congress, and we are missing the responsibility of being adults if we 
do not raise this issue to see our role or our way of participating in 
bringing the awareness out.
  This is not an issue that Congress can do alone. This is an issue, 
obviously, where we can make a difference. But this is an issue where 
we have to encourage, as many of you have indicated in your community, 
where we get many sectors of our community, whether it is the church, 
the home, Boy Scouts, PTA, a variety.
  Also, we have to understand that abstinence is one of those things we 
teach, but we also have to understand we have to teach contraceptives 
and family planning. The reality of where our young people are is that. 
When I was growing up, it was implicit that it

[[Page H2110]]

was abstinence. Now we have to make it explicit, to make sure that is 
one of the things young people know that they have that option.
  But we reinforce that when we have opportunity that expands their 
future, expands their horizon of dreaming. You can dream dreams when 
people make that opportunity, the connection between work, the 
connection between education as a future for them.
  As Members of Congress, we ought to consider in the whole budget 
debate, what things are we doing that are disincentives for young 
people to stay in school. I would submit that our education budget is 
not one that encourages, that we are investing in education. Certainly 
taking away the summer program is the wrong way to go if we are talking 
about making sure that young people are fully engaged during the time 
of the summer, but there are other programs that we can also do.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues who have participated in this 
special order.
  As we consider how and where to reduce spending, we must also not 
forget that teenage pregnancies cause a heavy burden on the Federal 
budget.
  Medicaid funds, food stamps, and AFDC funds are especially hard hit 
by the teenage pregnancy problem.
  If we want to balance the budget, let us begin by working to bring 
some balance to the lives of thousands and thousands of our teenagers, 
involved in premature childbearing.
  A recent report to Congress on out-of-wedlock childbearing indicates 
that 35 percent of all out-of-wedlock births are to women over age 25; 
35 percent are to women 20 to 24 years of age, and 30 percent are to 
teenagers.
  One objective of welfare reform, shared by both political parties, is 
to reduce teenage childbearing. Pending legislation on welfare reform, 
however, embraces an unreasoned approach to reduce the number of out-
or-wedlock births, by denying cash benefits to unwed teenage mothers.
  This unreasoned approach is based on the perception that the system 
has failed and contends that any proposed change, no matter how 
austere, must be a good change.
  Thus, those who propose eliminating welfare benefits to young unwed 
mothers argue that their approach can't make matters any worse than 
they already are.
  Such proposals appear premised on the belief that if Government 
ignores teen parents, they will go away or get married. There is little 
or no research to support such contentions.
  Reason, on the other hand, suggests that even if the belief held true 
for some, there would be many young children and mothers left 
destitute.
  To have true welfare reform we must eliminate the need to pay these 
monetary benefits rather than just eliminating the funding.
  As I stated earlier, we want to ``end welfare as we know it.'' But we 
do not want to replace it with welfare as we do not want to know it. We 
do not want to enact legislation that leads to a policy of national 
child abandonment.
  An effort to reduce teenage childbearing is likely to require more 
than eliminating or manipulating welfare programs.
  In fact 76 of the top researchers in this field signed a statement 
saying, ``welfare programs are not among the primary reasons for the 
rising number of out-of-wedlock births.''
  My opinion on the issue revolves around three unanswered questions. 
First, if welfare is fueling the growth in out-of-wedlock births, they 
why do many of the States with the lowest AFDC payment levels have some 
of the highest out-of-wedlock birth rates? Second, why have out-of-
wedlock births increased as the relative value of welfare benefits have 
gone down over the last 20 years? And third, why do other nations with 
more generous welfare benefits have lower teenage birth rates?
  Teenage pregnancy is just one marker of disadvantaged--one result of 
growing up poor and poorly nurtured.
  But, teen pregnancy is also a strong predictor of a new generation of 
disadvantaged.
  The equation is as simple as this: As poverty is the most accurate 
predictor of teen pregnancy, teen pregnancy is a near-certain predictor 
of poverty.
  While one in four American children now live in poverty, a 1991 
report from the Casey Foundation compares the children of two groups of 
Americans: those who finished high school, got married, and reached age 
20 before having a child and those who did not.
  Of children in the first group, the poverty rate was 8 percent; in 
the second group the poverty rate was 79 percent.
  Among teens, more births occur out-of-wedlock today than occurred 35 
years ago.
  This increase in out-of-wedlock births can be attributed to the 
certain changes in marriage patterns, sexual behavior, contraceptive 
practices, abortion, and the composition of the teenage population.
  Young men and women are increasingly delaying marriage but not sexual 
activity. Teens make three sets of choices about sexual behavior and 
its consequences.
  The first is whether and when to start having sex.
  The second is whether to use contraceptives.
  According to studies, in making the third choice--whether to become 
pregnant--the distinctions by income are dramatic.
  In 1994, of all women age 15 to 19, 38 percent are defined as 
``poor'' or ``low-income''; of these same women, 73 percent were 
projected to become pregnant. Of the 1 million teens who become 
pregnant each year, about half give birth, about 40 percent choose 
abortion, and the remaining 10 percent miscarry.
  Once a teenager becomes pregnant there is no good solution. There is 
pain in adoption, there is pain in abortion, there is pain and 
suffering in giving birth and parenting a child. The best solution is 
to prevent the pregnancy.
  Young people who believe that they have real futures to risk have 
real incentives to delay parenting. That is why when we demand 
responsible behavior, we have a reciprocal obligation to offer a real 
future beyond early parenting and poverty.
  Reducing teenage childbearing is likely to require more than 
eliminating or manipulating welfare programs. Experience tells us that 
threats and punishment are not the best way to get teens to behave in a 
way that is good for them.
  The most successful approach to reducing teenage childbearing is to 
design policies and procedures that are targeted to encourage positive 
developmental behavior through beneficial adult role models and job 
connections.
  We must implement pregnancy prevention programs that educate and 
support school-age youths--10 to 21--in high-risk situations and their 
family members through comprehensive social and health services, with 
an emphasis or pregnancy prevention.
  On average, it takes teens 1 year after becoming sexually active to 
receive family planning services.
  The pregnancy rate among sexually experienced teens actually fell 19 
percent from 1972-90, suggesting that teenagers who have access to 
birth control and are motivated have been successful at preventing 
pregnancies.
  A recent study conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and 
Public Health analyzed the value reproductive clinics and other health 
care providers had when given an opportunity to intervene and provide 
contraceptive counseling to a group of sexually active teenage girls 
before they became pregnant.
  The study shows that spending money on counseling these teenagers 
could help reduce future pregnancies.
  Teenage girls seeking pregnancy tests are already sexually active, so 
even the most determined fundamentalist cannot claim that the clinics 
are telling these teens to have sex.

  Unfortunately, clinics struggling for funds have a disincentive to 
serve teenagers who, by and large, cannot pay.
  In addition, counseling teenagers is quite expensive because they 
need more attention than older women.
  In the study, most girls who came for a test had reason to believe 
they might be pregnant: a late or a missed period.
  But, a significant number--almost 14 percent--believed there was 
little chance they were pregnant.
  One has to wonder why they came to the clinic. Perhaps it was a way 
to get someone that they could trust to talk to them.
  Devoting more resources to preventing teen pregnancy will not only 
save us money in the long run, but it will improve the health, 
education, economic opportunities, and well-being of these young women 
and their families.
  Supporting the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is an 
ideal way to acknowledge the problem of out-of-wedlock teen births. I 
urge all of my colleagues, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to 
join in the campaign's effort.

                          ____________________