Congressional Record, Volume 142 Issue 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)

[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.

____________________