[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7503-H7504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I am here this evening to really report 
good news and bad news on the level of teen pregnancy. Because we care 
about our young people, and because they care about themselves, we must 
celebrate the good news and work to improve the bad.
  Mr. Speaker, the good news is that fewer North Carolina teenagers 
became pregnant in 1996 than in 1995. It was the sixth year in a row 
that the teen pregnancy rate has fallen in North Carolina, and that is 
good news.
  The bad news is although the teen pregnancy rate has fallen, and that 
rate continues to fall, it has been rising in many countries including 
the United States. And in 1996, the teen pregnancy rate for North 
Carolina girls between the ages of 15 and 19 was 10th highest in the 
country, 89.8 out of 1,000. That is indeed the bad news.
  I am here today for our young people, because they care and they need 
to have an opportunity. They want a job, they want a career, they want 
a chance. They want to be both positive and productive in their future. 
Our young people want an education, a career and a chance, a chance for 
the future to make a difference, not only in their lives, but in their 
communities' and in their families' lives.
  I have had now nearly one dozen teen pregnancy forums in my district 
over the past few years, and for the express purpose of helping our 
young people look towards achieving their goals of having a career and 
having a positive future. In those forums, we focused on the importance 
of both boys and girls taking responsibility to prevent adolescent 
pregnancy.
  Premature pregnancy can affect teens physically, but more importantly 
it impairs their stride toward success. Each year approximately 1 
million teens become pregnant. Once a teenager becomes pregnant, there 
simply is no good solution to that problem. The best solution is to 
prevent the pregnancy in the first place. The ``Kids Having Kids'' 
report released by the Robinhood Foundation gives the alarming costs 
and consequences of teenage childbearing. It shows that teenage 
childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers a staggering $6.9 billion each year, 
and the cost to the Nation in lost productivity rises to as much as $29 
billion annually.

                              {time}  1930

  The consequences to the families and to the children of these teen 
parents in health, social, and economic development are devastating.
  Let me just cite a few of those report findings. More childhood 
health problems: They are more likely to be born prematurely, and 50 
percent more likely to be born with low birth weight than if their 
mothers had been older when they were born.
  Increased child abuse: They are twice as likely to be abused and 
neglected if they are born to teenage parents. Trouble in school: They 
are 50 percent more likely to repeat grades and to perform 
significantly worse on cognitive development tests.
  Reproducing the cycle of poverty: The girls born to adolescent moms 
are more than 83 percent more likely to become teen moms themselves, 83 
percent.
  Behind bars: The teenage sons of adolescent mothers are up to 2.7 
times more likely to land in prison than their counterparts in the 
comparative group.
  By extension, adolescent child bearing in and of itself costs 
taxpayers roughly $1 billion each year to build and maintain prisons 
for the sons of young teenage mothers.
  Kids having kids is the most comprehensive report done on the costs 
and consequences of teenage pregnancy to parents, children, and 
society. This ground breaking report graphically illustrates the 
financial loss in terms of social and economic costs to our Nation. I 
want young people to be in the optimum position to prepare for the rest 
of their lives. That means postponing sexual involvement until a much 
later time in their life when they are mature on these decisions.
  There are positive options we should make sure that all of our 
teenagers have as they grow to be adults. Young people should recognize 
those positive options. But we should make them available to them. We 
must provide real choices for a real chance in life.
  Some of the young people in North Carolina have taken this first 
step, and we want to say congratulations to

[[Page H7504]]

them. However, Mr. Speaker, the good news is that they have done that. 
The bad news is not enough have done that.
  We are part of the responsibility, and we are part of the solution to 
make sure that the bad news turns into good news.

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