I’ve often blogged about why teen pregnancy is an important Arizona winnable battle and why it’s a key public health indicator. Having a baby as a teenager impacts the mom, the dad, the baby and the whole community. Teen parents often don’t finish high school which, in turn, reduces their ability to financially take care [...]
Teen pregnancy is a key public health indicator because of the profound negative health outcomes related to a lack of education and economic opportunity. For example, only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma versus approximately 90% of their peers. The disadvantages caused by a teen pregnancy can last a lifetime- and even spill over to [...]
Late last week we awarded two new community-based contracts for the new Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) funds: BJ Youth Foundation and Mariposa Community Health Center. PREP is the new federal program from the Affordable Care Act that requires programs educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This [...]
To combat teen pregnancy, ADHS uses multiple approaches that best fit with needs of local communities. Our Bureau of Women’s & Children’s Health has implemented teen pregnancy prevention programs since 1997 and currently administers the Abstinence Education Program and Comprehensive Education using lottery dollars and new federal funding authorized through the Affordable Care Act. The federal [...]
Preventing teen pregnancies could save Arizona more than $180M/year. Teen mothers face higher rates of preterm birth, and their kids have higher rates of low birth weight and infant death. Compared to women who delay childbearing until the age of 20 to 21 years, teenage moms are more likely to drop out of high school and to [...]
