Planned Parenthood Recognizes Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month

New York, NY – Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) recognizes the power of prevention during National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and throughout the year.  Unfortunately, this country still faces a teen pregnancy health care crisis. This year an estimated 750,000 American teens will become pregnant. The U.S. continues to hold the regrettable distinction of having the highest teen pregnancy rate among the most developed nations.

“All too often in our society, teens are bombarded with conflicting messages about sex,” said PPFA President Cecile Richards. “They are looking to us for honest and accurate information so they can make responsible decisions. Unfortunately, in the last decade, more than $1.5 billion has been wasted on dangerous abstinence-only programs that deny teenagers lifesaving information.”

“As the mother of two teenagers, I know it can be difficult to talk with your kids about sex. We need education programs in our schools that will keep teens healthy and help to reduce teen pregnancy — by including information about abstinence as well as contraception, healthy communication, responsible decision making, and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.”

Planned Parenthood is a leading advocate for school education programs that will keep teens healthy and help reduce teen pregnancy. Planned Parenthood also partners with parents to help them talk with their teens about comprehensive sex education.

This year at the 2008 Youth Summit in Washington, DC, Planned Parenthood teen peer educators articulated their demands for more comprehensive programs in schools through spoken word poetry. Students from Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio’s Triple T program (Teens Talking to Teens) are featured in a video at the above link.  Triple T is a paid yearlong program for teens aged 14-17 who attend the Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Outreach Program’s (HUMADAOP) Hispanic Youth Center (El Centro Hispano de Jovenes) in Cleveland.  The program offers mentoring, job skill building, and peer to peer health education.  A second program is being started in collaboration with the City of East Cleveland.

Planned Parenthood has the nation’s largest network of sex educators, who teach parents and young people in schools and communities nationwide, every day, how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. In our affiliates’ 860 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood providers and educators see firsthand the price that young people pay when they are denied access to medically accurate, comprehensive sex education that could help them protect their lives and their futures.

Read more about Planned Parenthood’s support for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.

Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio is a recent consolidation of Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland, Planned Parenthood of North Central Ohio, Planned Parenthood of Stark County, Planned Parenthood of Summit, Portage and Medina Counties, and Planned Parenthood of the Mahoning Valley. We provide essential reproductive health care services to more than 50,000 women and men in our local Northeast Ohio communities. We serve as a leader in breast and cervical cancer screening and prevention, as well as prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted disease. We supply medically accurate sexuality education to thousands of young people and their parents.

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