Mayor Bobby Bright has proclaimed May 2007 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Awareness Month. The proclamation results from the fact that Montgomery County ranks among the top ten Alabama counties with the highest rates of teen pregnancy. Teen pregnancy both creates and directly results from a wide variety of health and social problems such as poverty, low educational attainment, abuse and neglect, crime, and increasing numbers of sexually transmitted diseases. Annually, teen childbearing costs Montgomery’s taxpayers over $88 million.

To combat and counteract the negative impact that teen pregnancy has both on Montgomery’s youth and on the community as a whole, the Montgomery Area Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in partnership with Alabama State University is sponsoring a citywide poster contest among Montgomery’s high schools. A panel of community members and local teenagers will judge the entries, and the winning posters will be displayed in the Alabama State University Art Gallery. Also in observance of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Awareness Month, teenagers throughout Central Alabama will join thousands of teenagers across the nation and participate in the annual Teen Pregnancy Prevention Quiz, sponsored by Teen People Magazine and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The Montgomery Area Campaign and its Teen Leadership Board are also preparing a PSA to send through the media, designed to raise awareness of both the consequences of at-risk and unhealthy behaviors, and the advantages of choosing healthy relationships and lifestyles, among local teenagers.

Teen pregnancy is a paramount problem facing the youth of Central Alabama today. Moreover, it is very closely linked to so many other heart-breaking problems among the youth in our community such as drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, child abuse and neglect, rape, violence, and a lack of education. We appreciate your concern for and commitment to our community, and we encourage you to help us spread the word about Teen Pregnancy Prevention Awareness Month to teenagers and parents. 

If you would like more information or an interview, please call Rebecca Leadingham, Director of the Montgomery Area Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy at (334) 273-3095. Thank you for your help and your interest in our area youth.

The Montgomery Area Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

A Project of The Gift of Life Foundation

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          Contact: Bill Albert

 October 30, 2006                                                        National Campaign

                                                   (202) 478-8510, balbert@teenpregnancy.org

 

Teen Childbearing in Alabama Cost Taxpayers $178 Million Annually

New State and National Data Released

 

     (Washington, DC)--- Despite a 29% decline in the state teen birth rate between 1991 and 2004, teen childbearing in Alabama cost taxpayers (federal, state, and local) at least $178 million in 2004, according to a new analysis released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Of These Costs, 52% were federal costs and 48% were state and local cost. The public sector costs of teen childbearing total $9.1 billion.

Most of the public sector costs of teen childbearing as associated with negative consequences for the children of teen mothers. In Alabama in 2004, annual taxpayers costs associated with children born to teen mothers included: $40 million for public health care; $27 million for child welfare; $16 million for incarceration; and $59 million in lost tax revenue due to decreased earnings over the children's career. There are also costs and savings associated with teen mothers and fathers of their children which are factored into the $178 million total.

The analysis. By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing, is authored by Saul Hoffman, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Department Chair of the University of Delaware. The new analysis is the fist comprehensive national estimate of the public costs of teen childbearing since the 1996 publication of Kids Having Kids, a ground-breaking report edited by Rebecca Maynard, Ph.D. It si also the first-ever analysis of what teen childbearing costs in every state.

Between 1991 and 2004, there have been more than 143,000 teen births in Alabama, costing taxpayers an estimated $3.4 billion over that period. The 29% decline in the teen birth rate between 1991 and 2004 in Alabama has yielded substantial cost savings. The progress Alabama has made in reducing teen childbearing saved taxpayers on estimated $103 million in 2004 alone.

"This report makes clear that teen pregnancy and child-bearing have significant economic and social costs," said Sarah Brown, Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "Making further progress in reducing teen pregnancy will benefit taxpayers and the economy, as well as improve the education , health, and social prospects for this generation of young people and the next."

The analysis provides a cautions estimate of the costs of teen childbearing and reflects only those costs clearly associated with a teen birth rather than other associated risks. Specifically, the analysis compares costs associated with teen mothers (aged 19 and younger), their partners, and their children with the same costs for women who delay childbearing until they are aged 20-21.

For more information: Visit the National Campaign's By The Numbers website at www.teenpregnancy.org/costs for a fact sheet detailing teen childbearing costs in Alabama and other states and Washington, DC as well as the By the Numbers report.

Funding: This project was made possible by a generous grant from the William T. Grant Foundation.

About the National Campaign: Founded in 1996, the National Campaign is a private, nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the well-being of children, youth, and families by reducing teen pregnancy. The organization's goal is to reduce the teen pregnancy rate ob one-third between 2006 and 2015.