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It’s the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. . and a Day to Promote Promising Evidenced-Based Programs

Today is the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy — a day geared to helping teens understand the importance of avoiding pregnancy and other serious consequences of sex.

It’s also a day for the rest of us to recommit to the need to address the issue.  Thanks to efforts like the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and this National Day, there have been steady declines over the years.  But, sadly, rates are reportedly on the rise again.

The solution is not so simple as “just saying no.”  Risky behaviors teens choose (including unprotected sex that may lead to STD’s as well as pregnancy) are often overlapping and multidimensional.  Programs that work to reduce pregnancy do not just focus on education about sexual health but delve into the myriad issues facing teens today, like substance abuse, violence, family support.  It’s important that we start implementing efforts that mirror these success stories.

In the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a new Office of Adolescent Health was recently funded to do just this.  Their first job is implementing and administering a new discretionary grant program to support evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention approaches.  This funding will be used to make competitive contracts and grants to public and private entities to fund medically accurate and age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy.  The grant program addresses rising teen pregnancy rates by supporting both: (1) the replication of evidence-based models and (2) the development and testing of demonstration programs around additional models and innovative strategies.

We commend HHS for this new initiative to fund programs based on theory and evidenced-based approaches.  Such a national effort will most likely bring forth declines again not only in adolescent pregnancy but other negative teen outcomes.

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