[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION MONTH--MAY 1999

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend my colleague, 
Congresswoman Eva Clayton, for addressing a major concern in our 
society--teen pregnancy. The care and protection of children is, first 
and foremost, a family concern. When teenagers have babies, the 
consequences are felt throughout society.
  Children born to teenage parents are more likely to be of low birth-
weight and to suffer from inadequate health care, more likely to leave 
high school without graduating, and more likely to be poor, thus 
perpetuating a cycle of unrealized potential.
  Despite a 20-year low in the teen pregnancy rate and an impressive 
decline in the teen birth rate, the United States still has the highest 
teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country. About 40 percent of 
American women become pregnant before the age of 20.
  The result is about 1 million pregnancies each year among women ages 
15 to 19. About half of those pregnancies end in births, often to young 
women and men who lack the financial and emotional resources to care 
adequately for their children.
  When parents are financially and emotionally unprepared, their 
children are more likely to be cared for either by other relatives, 
such as grandparents, or by taxpayers through public assistance.
  We must have a goal that requires an unwavering commitment and 
aggressive action by both communities and families. It must be 
recognized that there is no magic solution to reducing teen pregnancy, 
childbearing, and STD rates, nor will a single intervention work for 
all teens. Because the decline from 1990 to 1996 is attributable to 
many factors, it is essential to continue and expand a range of 
programs that embrace many strategies. Experts agree that holistic, 
comprehensive, and flexible approaches are needed.
  Taken as a whole, society has to view the dangerous consequences of 
teenage sexual activity as an ongoing challenge. We should want to 
protect our teenagers from the risk of premature parenthood and from 
disease, and we should want to protect the children they would struggle 
to raise. If we are serious about breaking the cycles of poverty and 
underachievement that, too often, result from kids having kids, then we 
must not be satisfied with the recent downward trends.
  We must expand our efforts to help those teens who are at the 
greatest risk. Rather than becoming complacent because of the recent 
downturn, we must be more aggressive in implementing the positive 
lessons that contributed to the downswing and redouble our efforts to 
cut the teen birth rate even more significantly.
  We must begin to speak up and out to our young ladies about sex at an 
early age to prevent teen pregnancy. I thank my dear colleague for her 
leadership.

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