Important Facts
Each year in this country more than 760,000 teens under the age of 20 get pregnant and nearly 420,000 give birth. The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth among the first-orld countries. There are many consequences related to teen pregnancy; some you know and some you may not. For more information about the consequences to teen pregnancy please click on the links below.

For more detailed information see www.teenpregnancy.org

How much does it cost us?
What about school?
What if I got pregnant?
What if I got a girl pregnant?
Won’t somebody think about the children?

How much does it cost us?

• In 2004, it cost Utah tax payers $63 million dollars each year for costs related to teen pregnancy
  • $13 million for public health care
  • $13 million for child welfare
  • $9 million for incarceration
  • $21 million in lost tax revenue

• Between 1991 and 2004, there were more than 56,200 teen births in Utah, costing taxpayers about $1.3 billion over that period.

• If a mother gives birth as an unmarried teen and didn’t get a high school diploma, there is a 64% chance that the child will grow up in poverty. On the other hand, if none of these things happen, the child’s chance of growing up in poverty is only 7%.

• 52% of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager.

• Almost 1/2 of all teen mothers and over 3/4 of unmarried teen mothers begin receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child.
  

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What about school?

• Only 1 out of every 3 teen mothers receive their high school diplomas and only 1.5% have a college degree by age 30.

• In the past 25 years, the average income for college graduates has increased 13%, while the average income for high school dropouts has decreased 30%.

• With a lack of education and job skills, a teen mother may have a hard time finding and keeping a job.

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Consequences to the teen mother

• Only 1 out of every 3 teen mothers receive their high school diploma and only 1.5% of have a college degree by age 30.

• Nearly 80% of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare.

• Teen mothers spend more of their young adult years as single parents than do women who delay have children.

• Only 30% of teen mothers who marry after their child is born remain in those marriages.

• Teen marriages are twice as likely to fail.

• 52% of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager.

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Consequences to the teen father

• Teen pregnancies are associated with an increased rate of delinquent behaviors in the fathers, including alcohol and substance abuse, lower educational level, and reduced earning potential.

• Nearly 80% of fathers of children born to teen mothers do not marry the mothers.

• These fathers pay less than $800 annually in child support, often because they are poor themselves.

• Children who live apart from their fathers are 5 times more likely to be poor.

• Boys and girls without involved fathers are twice as likely to drop out of school, abuse alcohol or drugs, or end up in jail. They are four times as likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.

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Consequences to the baby

• If a child a born into a home with a mother and father in a healthy marriage, the consequences are:
  
  • More likely to attend college
  • More likely to succeed academically
  • They are physically and emotionally healthier
  • They are less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs
  • They are less likely to get into trouble
  • They are less likely to be raised in poverty
  • They are less likely to be abused and/or neglected
  • They are less likely to get pregnant or cause a pregnancy
  • They are less likely to get infected with a STI

• However, the children of teen mothers…
  
  • Have lower birth weights, raising the chance of chronic health problems and possibly death
  • Are more likely to perform poorly in school
  • Are at a greater risk of abuse and neglect
  • The sons of teen mothers are 13% more likely to end up in prison
  • The daughters of teen mothers are 22% more likely to become teen mothers themselves

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