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.