Preventing Teen Pregnancy Through Empowerment

In recent news, the Brookings Institution found that our nation spends $11 billion as a result of unintended pregnancies. $11 billion!!

Everyone agrees that prevention is the answer to avoiding unplanned pregnancies, but how to achieve that is a hotly debated subject.

Some believe that abstinence-only education is the only way to go, and that teaching our teens about any other form of birth control will just “give them permission” to have sex. The other side believes that full disclosure about available birth control options should be made available in our schools. Politics aside, we need cost-effective programs that work. Period.

Our experience at the in Eureka is that we need to equip our young people with healthy behaviors, life skills and a sense of purpose to garner real results. Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program (TOP) is proven to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy by 53 percent, and whether it is accompanied with abstinence-only, or comprehensive sex education, does not change that number.

We must teach teens how to make smart decisions and how to recognize and handle their own emotions. Choices made during these years are critical to lifelong success. Helping young people acquire the skills and confidence to make the right choices will have a life-long, positive impact on our economic and social future.