Lucille Roybal-Allard: “Mr. Speaker the month of May has been set aside as teenage pregnancy prevention month. Although May is coming to an end…”

“Mr. Speaker the month of May has been set aside as teenage pregnancy prevention month. Although May is coming to an end, it is imperative that legislators and the American people continue to focus attention on creating policies and programs to reduce the growing number of teenagers who become pregnant each year. This is critical because, unfortunately, the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among the industrialized nations of the world. The result is the devastation of the lives of millions of young girls and the loss to our country of their talents and potential contributions. This loss weakens our country's future, because in order to compete in the ever expanding global economy, we must utilize the full talents of all our young people. In my State of California, for example, 8 out of 10 teen mothers never finish high school. The result? Thousands of uneducated and untrained young girls forced onto welfare with little hope for a better future. Furthermore, moneys that could be used to help improve the quality of life for all Americans are diminished by the expenditure of billions of dollars on health care and cash assistance programs for families with teen parents. For example, the average AFDC and Medicaid costs for just one teen pregnancy through the first year of support total more than $10,000 per child; and the total spent in California for teen pregnancies is between $5 billion and $7 billion annually.”