When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously replied: "That's where the money is." Which brings us to community colleges...

As regular readers of this blog are surely aware, fully half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Among single women in their 20s the rate is even higher--fully seven in 10 pregnancies among single 20-somethings are unplanned. Moreover, the rates of teen pregnancy and childbearing are highest among older teens (those age 18-19).

Take the high rate of unplanned pregnancy among young adults and consider this: there are about 11.5 million students in community colleges, representing nearly half (46%) of all undergraduate students in America.

Starting to get the Willie Sutton drift?

Women currently account for 51% of the overall U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. To be precise, there were 154,135,120 women and 149,924,604 men in the United States in 2008. We also know that women, more often than not, are responsible for making decisions about their families' health care.

While I think it would be hard to make the leap that 51 percent of the programs and benefits of health reform should be directly targeted toward women, it's not a stretch to argue that health reform should address the health care needs of women and their families. That includes pregnancy planning and prevention.

Unplanned pregnancies are closely linked to a number of negative health, social, and economic consequences. Family planning services--counseling, gynecological care and screenings, prescription drugs and devices, and related outpatient services--are a cost-effective way to make progress on preventing unplanned pregnancy and improving health outcomes for women and families. As such, family planning should be classified as a preventive benefit with the same cost-sharing protections afforded to other designated preventive benefits in any essential benefit package that is created within the context of health reform.

For health reform to work, it has to be meaningful for everyone, including 51 percent of the U.S. population.

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 September 17th, the journal Reproductive Health published an article, "Religiosity and teen birth rate in the United States," on the relationship between teen birth rates and "religiosity" (level of religious affiliation) by state. The study found that the states with the highest religiosity also had the highest teen birth rates, even when controlling for income and abortion rates (the study also found that high religiosity correlated with lower income levels and lower likelihood of abortion). Predictably in this contentious field, there are already some who question the overall analytic approach of the study.

Even so, the speculation of the study's authors that "conservative religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging use of contraception among their teen community members than in discouraging sexual intercourse itself" is worth contemplating. On a personal level (I'll leave the policy theorizing for Rachel Maddow), I've spoken to several of my colleagues from religious backgrounds about this study and they all echoed the theory offered by several blogs and articles--that teens from religious backgrounds are less likely than other teens to use contraception when they do have sex because they don't think it works, or because they feel that thinking about contraception would suggest premeditation and intention.

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.