Political Quotes

“I would like to make a very brief comment on a very important hearing which was held this morning in the Subcommittee on Education, Health, Human Services and Labor with Chairman Senator Harkin and myself on the issue of teenage pregnancy. In the course of that hearing we heard from the Surgeon General, Dr. Elders, and others, about the scope of that problem. It has been characterized by our colleague, Senator Moynihan, as a central problem in America today. It may well be the most important problem as we grapple with teenage pregnancy where we have a family coming into existence without any family structure at all. It has ramifications on very substantial costs in welfare. It has ramifications on the ability of the child to learn. It has ramifications on cost control. We see a pattern involving children giving birth to children. Children from teenage parents become teenage parents themselves. I commend to my colleagues the testimony of Dr. Elders and the testimony of three teenagers who came in, two of whom were teenage pregnant.”