[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H3067-H3068]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pledge my full support to 
efforts across this country to reduce teen pregnancy. It is a pleasure 
to speak today in cooperation with my colleagues, the gentleman from 
Delaware (Mr. Castle), the gentlewoman North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton), 
the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), all of us working here in 
the Congress on this goal.
  Before I came here, I spent 20 years working as a school nurse in my 
community of Santa Barbara, California, in the central coast. During 
that time, for a large portion of that time, I was the director of a 
program at one of our largest high schools for teen parents and their 
children. So I know about this topic firsthand.
  This program, which I fully support, encourages teenage parents, both 
mothers and fathers, to stay in school for their own success and the 
success of their young families. It provides child care, parenting 
education, gives them access to support services in addition to a high 
school diploma and further. It is a strong intervention program.
  While I was with these young moms and dads, I learned firsthand the 
struggles that they face on a daily basis to survive and to make 
something of their lives. It turns out that teenage parents are some of 
the strongest advocates for preventing teen pregnancy. They did and do 
this still in my community in a very dramatic and loving way with their 
peers.
  They know that prevention is the key, and parents are the key to 
prevention. Parents need to be reminded, we all do as parents, that, 
first and foremost, parental guidance is the best deterrence for 
teenage pregnancy. Teens want to learn and hear more at home. They want 
to hear about values and have value role models for them in their homes 
and to have personal responsibility discussed.
  We need to work as a community to prevent teen pregnancy with child 
care programs and after school programs so that our teens are busy and 
engaged and their energy is used in productive, supervised activities. 
Most importantly, we need to give them goals for the future.
  Class reduction in our schools is a good thing for preventing teen 
pregnancy. So are partnerships that I have seen in my community between 
businesses and our schools that provide mentorship that light a fire in 
the students and give them motivation to know that they have a future 
for themselves and they can begin to set meaningful goals.
  Some want adults in the community to talk with them about their goals 
and to support them in reaching these goals. This is really good 
pregnancy prevention that I watched and was part of firsthand.
  I am very proud of all that the PACE center has achieved, the teen 
parent program that I was so much involved with so long and from whom I 
learned so much, and that these programs are alive and well and 
thriving in my community.
  I strongly support them and other groups around the country that work 
with young parents helping them to keep their lives on track and 
teaching them to be nurturing and good parents.
  But I look forward to the time when we will not need so many of these 
programs. We know now as we have watched pregnancy prevention programs 
and parents and communities, religious leaders working together that 
our teenage pregnancy rate has declined. But we must continue to 
strive.
  That is why I am so pleased to be the newest member actually of the 
House Advisory Panel for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen 
Pregnancy. We have a job to do here in Congress, and my colleagues have 
spoken to this today.
  It is an honor for me to be a cosponsor of the Teen Pregnancy 
Reduction Act by pulling together the best of ideas from around the 
country, interactions in our communities with young people taking the 
lead, and their families and community leaders, the ideas

[[Page H3068]]

that are working, model programs that we can hold up for the rest of 
the country to follow.
  Together we can demonstrate that, when our families lead the way, 
that we can do something in our community to make sure that each child 
born is born to a loving and a family able to care for them; and that 
teenage pregnancy can continue to see a decline in enrollment, in 
numbers; and that we can support young parents where we need to. It is 
a pleasure and an honor to be a part of this program.

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