Teen Pregnancy

Teenage Pregnancy has been proven to be linked with premature births, a high risk of birth defects and maternal complications. Teenage pregnancy is a problem that impacts every community. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has embarked on a campaign to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. Evidence from data released by the National Center for Health Statistics suggests that as of December 2007, the preliminary data from 2006 indicated that teenage birth rates have increased for the first time in15 years. One of the areas experiencing the highest increase is Ector County in Texas. This Texan County was noted to have the highest percentage of all births at 22.9%. The nation's agenda to reduce teenage pregnancy should be a public approach, the goal of which is to develop a public health program to aid in decreasing the number of teenage pregnancy and all associated adverse effects. In our program we plan to work in the County of Ector, Texas, to identify factors leading to the high rate of teen pregnancy and develop a program designed to reduce this number.

Problem Statement

Most teenage pregnancies are unintended and more than half of these are aborted. This rate is higher in the United States than any other industrialized nation (Speroff & Darney, 2005). One reason for this finding could be that teenagers