KEY MESSAGES FOR TEENS
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PREVENTING TEEN PREGNANCY
Key Messages For Teens
Three out of ten girls in the United
States get pregnant before age 20. That’s
two thousand girls every day. We have the
highest teen pregnancy and birth rates in
the fully developed world. 1 in 10 babies in
the United States is born to a teen mother.
And it’s 100% preventable.
Preventing teen pregnancy solves a
host of other social problems. It is the
most effective way to reduce child poverty
and improve the lives of this generation and
the next. If more children in this country
were born to parents ready and able to
care for them, we would see lower levels
of academic failure, crime, child abuse
and neglect, and healthier, more successful
children and families.
The teen years must be for education
and growing up, not pregnancy and parenthood. Babies need and deserve adult
parents, not parents who are children themselves. All grownups— parents, coaches,
clergy, teachers, relatives, and even media
leaders—must help teens commit to the
idea that teen pregnancy is not okay. We
need to help young people understand that
being a parent is one of the most important
things they will do with their lives, and
waiting until they’re older will help them
be the best parents they can be.
Unlike so many other situations that can
derail an education, put dreams on hold,
change the trajectory of generations of
lives, and shake a family to its core, teen
pregnancy is preventable. In fact, over the
past two decades, teen pregnancy and birth
rates in the U.S. have declined by more than
one-third. But progress has slowed and we
need to reach teens now more than ever.
Teen pregnancy is a problem we can solve.
MESSAGES FOR TEENS:
1. Not everyone is doing it. Some are,
some aren’t—and some are lying. In fact,
more than half of high school-aged teens
are virgins. The younger teens are, the less
likely it is that they have had sex. Despite
what most teens think, not everyone is in a
rush to have sex. When asked whether they
would rather lose their virginity as soon as
possible or wait and lose their virginity with
someone they love, three-quarters of teen
boys ages 15-1