Teenage Pregnancy in the United States
Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is traditionally defined as occurring between 13 and 19 years of age. The majority of teenage births in the United States occur among girls between 15 and 19 years of age. According to Gelfond, Dierschke, Lowe, & Plastino (2016), "Almost 4 in 5 pregnancies (77%) among adolescents aged 15 to 19 are unintended, and the adverse behaviors and outcomes associated with unintended pregnancy are both immediate and long term, including adverse birth outcomes, poor health during childhood, and poor mother-child relationships" (p. 597). This paper will focus on unintended pregnancies among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 who are not married.
The national teenage
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This is largely contributed to the highly influential pamphlet that the Guttmacher Institute, along with Planned Parenthood, published in 1976 called Eleven million teenagers: What can be done about the epidemic of adolescent pregnancies in the United States (Vinovskis, 2003). This publication "played a major role in persuading the media and most policymakers to accept the idea of an unprecedented epidemic of adolescent pregnancy in the mid-1970s-even though the demographic evidence on teenage births suggested otherwise" (Vinovskis, 2003, p. …show more content…
I have sent to Congress a plan to target schools all over this country with anti-pregnancy programs that work. But government can only do so much. Tonight, I call on parents and leaders all across this country to join together in a national campaign against teen pregnancy to make a difference. We can do this, and we must."
-President Bill Clinton, January 24, 1995
After the State of the Union address, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, was formed which is a private nonprofit organization. The Campaign has raised the visibility of this issue nationwide by enlisting the help of the media and private advertising experts. The Campaign has also created a more effective grassroots movement that brings together public, private, nonprofit partners in states and local communities. Due largely to this effort the teenage pregnancy and birth rates continued to decline well into the 2000s.
Public Law