The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy applauds the Senate Finance Committee for passing Chairman Baucus' amendment to its health reform bill that would make a substantial and much-needed investment in evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. The amendment provides a total of $75 million a year over five years in mandatory funding for the Personal Responsibility Education for Adulthood Training (PRE-Adulthood Training) program, including $50 million to states and territories for proven, effective efforts to help young people avoid teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. These programs would also address several other issues to help prepare youth for adulthood including healthy relationships, financial literacy, parent-child communication, and educational and career success. The committee passed this amendment with a strong margin of 14 - 9.

As an organization dedicated to preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy and deeply committed to research and evidence, we applaud Chairman Baucus and the committee for the focus on strong science. The remaining $25 million would support innovative strategies and services for high risk and vulnerable youth, funds for Indian tribes and tribal organizations to address this important challenge, research, evaluation, and technical assistance, including a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center to support the work of states, tribes, and communities.

The committee also passed by a narrower margin of 12 - 11 an amendment that would restore the Title V abstinence-only education funds for states and territories.

Given the recent increase in the teen birth rate, a commitment to evidence-based programs is critical to intensify teen pregnancy prevention efforts around the country. This investment will help prepare young people for successful transitions to adulthood, alleviate poverty and improve educational outcomes, and improve overall child and family well-being. We urge the Senate to maintain this focus on programs with evidence of success and to include this important provision in the final health reform bill that emerges from Congress.

This mandatory funding complements discretionary funds for evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention that is working its way through the Appropriations process. President Obama proposed a $178 million teen pregnancy prevention initiative, including $128 million in discretionary funds and $50 million in mandatory funds. This would establish the first dedicated funding for evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. In July, the House included $128 million in discretionary funds similar to the President's proposal in its Labor-HHS Appropriations bill and the Senate Appropriations committee included $105 million in the bill it passed, which is awaiting Senate floor action. The House Energy and Commerce Committee also authorized $50 million for a Healthy Teen Initiative in its health reform bill.

On July 23rd, I had the opportunity to attend an historic event: a press conference at which people with very different views about abortion worked together rather than against each other. The occasion was the introduction of the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act authored by two bold leaders, Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) - one pro-choice and one pro-life. As Amy Sullivan of TIME put it, "The volume in the abortion debate has been stuck at rancorous screaming for so long that when it gets turned down, it's disorienting, like walking outside after a rock concert and trying to hear again."

As an organization dedicated to reducing teen and unplanned pregnancy, and with respect for deeply-held views about difficult issues, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy applauds this bill as a comprehensive, balanced approach to reduce the need for abortion by both helping to prevent unplanned pregnancy in the first place and supporting women and families once pregnancy occurs.

Community colleges are known to some as the red-headed step-child of higher education. NBC is even playing the association to its advantage with its new series coming this fall, Community. But the fact is that community colleges have played a critical role in the U.S., serving 11.5 million students and almost half of all undergrads across the country.

Although community colleges are seeing an increase in student enrollment, that doesn't necessarily mean there's an increase in the graduation rate. As David Brooks notes in his recent op-ed, No Size Fits All, about half of community college students fail to earn a degree. Recognizing the important role that student services play in students' success, last week President Obama announced the American Graduation Initiative, which gives schools the funding they need to offer their students "wrap-around services."

I had the great good fortune to attend yesterday's White House event during which President Obama spoke movingly of the critical role that a father plays in the lives of his children and the important support and companionship a father offers to his children's mother.  He spoke, as always, with a deep authenticity and commitment that were palpable, and all of us were touched by his message and by his own personal story, which made him a most compelling messenger.  Many in the room were leaders of the fatherhood field -- men who run programs, do related research, exhort their peers to see fatherhood as a privilege as well as a responsibility, and others leaders, too. 
 
I asked myself repeatedly what the connection was between my 40+  year interest in pregnancy planning and prevention, and the remarkable collection of people in the East Room.  The answer, I hope, is obvious, and it is simply that children are more likely to have present, engaged fathers when pregnancy is undertaken deliberately and  is based on a commitment between the two parties to each other and to the decades required to raise a child in this complex society.  I actually think this connection is quite obvious, although  yesterday no one mentioned the importance of exercising great care in becoming a father in the first place.  Understandably, the main emphasis was being the best dad you can be to the children you already have.
 
Interestingly, no attention was given to why so many children are growing up without a father actively involved in their lives.  Consider for example the fact that almost 40 percent of births are now to unmarried women; for babies born to women 20 to 24, the percentage is 60. Now it is true that some of these unmarried mothers will marry the fathers of these children  --  perhaps after several years of living together -- but that is often not the case and these children often spend some or all of their growing up years in father-absent homes. I wonder how many national leaders will talk about this particular challenge when the Father's Day speeches crank up to fever pitch this Sunday.
 
I mentioned this to a reporter last week -- that advocates of father involvement  rarely address non-marital child-bearing -- and he said, "I never really thought about that..."   But I think President Obama has. And I think the rest of us should too.  Are fathers just nice if they happen to be around?  Or should we tell the truth, as the President did today, which is that children can make it without fathers (he being the shining example), but that the preferred scenario is committed parents raising children together.  And one of the best ways to move in that direction is to ask both men and women to think hard about starting  a family -- when, with whom and under what circumstances.
 
So, my one friendly suggestion to the Administration as it embarks on a national conversation about responsible fatherhood and healthy families is to include explicit attention to pregnancy planning and prevention. This entails personal responsibility on the part of men and women (along with responsible policies on the part of the public and private sector), which in turn will contribute to less non-marital childbearing, a greater chance that children will grow up with  present and involved fathers, and stronger families.

Over the past several months Congress has been working at a fast pace to get comprehensive health reform legislation to the President's desk before the end of this year.

Two Senate committees are working on bills which they will ultimately merge into one and send to the full Senate for a vote sometime before Congress adjourns for the August recess.

Meanwhile, there are three committees in the House that are working on health reform. The House committees are collaborating to produce one bill, which is also expected to be voted on by the full House by early August. Broad outlines of a "Tri-Committee" draft bill were circulated last week.

Looking at the various draft proposals that have already been released, it is clear that Congress is making a historic effort to reform health care, as is the Obama administration. Yet with so many "big picture" issues to grapple with, like spiraling health care costs, access and affordability, employer mandates, taxing benefits, and whether to include a public plan option, it's hard to get Congress's attention on some of the "smaller issues," such as pregnancy planning and prevention. However, pregnancy planning and prevention affects the lives of most Americans who would benefit from health reform, and therefore, is very much a part of the "big picture."

Normally, I would preface this with an explanatory statement, conveying the seriousness with which we approach our work (especially in the policy realm). But sometimes, you just have to stop and smell the roses. And by "smell the roses," I mean "laugh 'til it hurts at Stephen Colbert."

One hundred days into his administration and it is clear that President Obama is ready to take up the important issue of teen pregnancy prevention and unplanned pregnancy with a sense of urgency and seriousness that it deserves. Nothing exemplifies this more than what we heard at NFPRHA's annual gala luncheon yesterday when Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, spoke about the need to direct more resources toward programs and services that support women's health and access to family planning services.

The Obama administration has made a strong commitment to prevention and evidence-based approaches to reduce teen and unintended pregnancy and in turn the need for abortion. In establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls, President Obama will address these issues and many others affecting women and women's health. In her remarks, Ms. Barnes expressed concern about the number of teens who are having sex without using contraception and acknowledged how important it is for parents to have the tools to be able to talk with their teens--both girls and boys. In addition, she raised the importance of involving young adults, men and women, in conversations about taking personal responsibility for their physical and emotional well-being.

To advance its goals, the White House is meeting with organizations and people in communities around the country and across the political spectrum to learn more about what communities are doing and what works. Ms. Barnes expressed a strong interest in working in partnership with family planning and reproductive health care providers to ensure that all women, men, and families get the health care and services they need.

This bodes well for those of us interested in making a serious dent in reducing the high rates of teen and unplanned pregnancy in our country. The steps the administration is taking are very encouraging and promising if we are to improve the lives and future prospects of children and families, and to help ensure that children are born into stable families who are ready for the demanding task of parenting.

When President Obama rolled out his budget blueprint yesterday, he said "we are making a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform. It's a step that will not only make families healthier and companies more competitive, but over the long term it will also help us bring down our deficit."

We hope this critically important effort will include helping people plan for healthy pregnancies and avoid unplanned pregnancies (of which there are 3 million each year). There is abundant evidence that doing so will improve the health and well-being of children and families. And, study after study shows that it will also save money--for taxpayers and employers.

Should be a no brainer, right? Well, yes, but first our leaders need to get over two things: the fear factor and the joke factor. Family planning is more than mainstream: 98% of sexually active women use some form of family planning. It is a key part of women's lives and health. Consider this: the typical American woman spends five years pregnant or trying to become pregnant and three decades trying to avoid pregnancy.

And, it has broad public support: 88% of voters support women's access to contraception. In fact, a recent poll by Public Strategies Inc. found that 72% of Republicans and Independents favor legislation that would make it easier for people at all income levels to obtain contraception.  The American people get this and the President does too, which is why his budget takes an important step to help more states provide family planning through Medicaid.

So, enough of the talk show jokes and smirks. Let's get serious and help do something that is common sense, promotes responsibility, improves health, and saves money.

President Obama's proposed budget contains the following language:

"The budget supports State, community-based, and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence-based models. The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically-accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active."

Stay tuned, more in due course...

Assuming there are no Pregnant Pause readers who are living under a rock (not that there's anything wrong with that), you have now heard that President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. the stimulus package) into law yesterday. The thing is massive—dollar amount aside, it's got 1,100 pages of Legal-ese for your reading enjoyment—and will surely provide some much-needed relief to state and local governments whose coffers are nearly running dry.

I'm no economist, but an unprecedented financial crisis, state and local budget shortfalls, and increased need for the services government provides to those who need it seem to spell trouble for many of the publicly funded teen pregnancy prevention programs that we all know and love. Governors and legislators all over the country are facing tough decisions about which programs to fund in the coming years. For some of our friends, the news has not been good. And at a time when it looks like some of our nation's progress on teen pregnancy may be stalling, or in some cases even reversing, the timing couldn't be worse.

Our perceived bias here is actually just plain common sense. Not only does investing in prevention save state and federal governments billions (with a 'b') of dollars, helping young people delay childbearing makes for healthier kids and moms, better educational outcomes, and stronger families overall. It's our hope that the number-crunchers give serious consideration to how families get started in the first place and continue to support these critical programs and services at the levels they so desperately need—for the sake of the bottom line and for the sake of young people's futures.

Read more of our musings here and here and then send us your musings on the topic.