National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

NATIONAL DAY TO PREVENT TEEN PREGNANCY-HON. DANNY K. DAVIS (Extensions of Remarks - May 06, 2004)

HON. DANNY K. DAVIS
OF ILLINOIS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, May 6, 2004

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. We have much to celebrate as a country in respect to teen pregnancies and birth. Teen pregnancy, abortion and birth rates have all declined: the birth rate is down 31 percent from 1991-2002 and the teen pregnancy rate is down 28 percent from 1990-2000. While African American teens still have higher teen pregnancy rates than any other major racial/ethnic groups in the country, their rates are decreasing faster than the overall rates for teen pregnancy and birth in the United States. Between 1990 and 2000, the teen pregnancy rate among African American teens declined 31.5 percent.

There have been an exceptional number of organizations whose hard work and dedication through education and outreach services contributed to this decline. A few of those include our Community Health Center, the school health associations, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Still, there is no room for complacency. Nearly half of our Nation's high school students have had sexual intercourse; the average age of first intercourse for boys and girls is 15 and almost 25 percent report having sex with four or more partners by 12th grade. 35 percent of girls still get pregnant by age 20 in this Nation-nearly 850,000 teen pregnancies annually. In Chicago alone, more than 7,500 babies are born to teen moms every year, 88 percent of which are out-of wedlock. The numbers of teens contracting sexually transmitted diseases are just as startling. Each year one-quarter of the estimated 12 million new cases of STD, other than HIV, in the United States occur among teenagers. Adolescents have one of the fastest increasing rates of HIV infection; an average of two young people are infected with HIV every hour of every day.

Abstinence education should be taught but not without more education explaining the risks of being sexually active. With the high percentage of adolescence having sexual intercourse and according to the Illinois Department of Public Health only 35 percent of males and females nationally use a condom during every act of sexual intercourse, we can not pretend or even wish that our young people are waiting to have sex. Education works-we have proof of that with the decline in teen pregnancies and births. We need to ensure that our young people are receiving a comprehensive sex education program to effectively teach and encourage teens to delay sexual activity. The Alan Guttmacher institute found that between 1988 and 1995, three-quarters of the decline in teen pregnancy was due to improved contraceptive use among sexually active teenagers with one quarter of the decrease due to increased abstinence.

Mr. Speaker, teen pregnancy is so closely linked to other critical social issues: child poverty, out of wedlock births, a well-trained and ready workforce, and a responsible fatherhood. Congress, communities, schools, parents, organizations and groups of faith should all join together in properly educating and demonstrating to our young people that adolescence is a time for education and growing up, not pregnancy and parenthood.

END