Why a National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy?
Since the early 1990s, the teen pregnancy rate has declined 38 percent and the teen birth rate has declined 31 percent. In fact, few social problems have improved quite as dramatically over the past decade plus. The most recent news on this front, however, has not been positive. The teen birth rate has now increased five percent between 2005 and 2007. Many teens say they are concerned about pregnancy, but still think “it can’t happen to me.” But it does – to nearly 750,000 girls every year. And the number one reason teens give for not using protection is that they weren’t planning to have sex and that it “just happened.” Our National Day activities are designed to help teens come up with their own plans for avoiding pregnancy.
Despite a 36% decline in the the national rate of teen pregnancy since the early 1990s, 34% of teen girls become pregnant at least once before age 20 and the vast majority (78%) of teen pregnancies are unintended. Making a Difference: Last year over 800,000 individuals took the online National Day Quiz. A survey of the some of the teens that participated in the 2006 National Day indicates: • 58% said the Quiz made them think about things they hadn’t thought about before; • 69% said the Quiz made the risks of sex and teen pregnancy seem more real to them; • 83% said the Quiz made them think about what they might do in such situations; • 57% said they’d learned something new from the Quiz about the consequences of sex Support for the National Day: National Day partners include a diverse group of over 230 media outlets, teen websites, health sector leaders, education leaders, businesses, youthserving groups, groups representing elected officials, fatherhood and male involvement groups, fa
