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    Prepared Parent

What’s really going on out there?

Free to Be is committed to providing current, medically accurate information to our teens and parents. Contrary to what many think, the majority of teens are not having sex. Still, there is much reason to be concerned…

Teen Pregnancy

  • A child born to an unmarried teen mother who has not finished high school is nine times more likely to be poor than a child born to an adult parent who is married and has graduated high school.(1)
  • 55% of births to women aged 20-24 are nonmarital.(2)
  • The birth rate for teens 15-17 dropped 38% from 1990 to 2002.(3)
  • 1 in 13 girls 15-19 become pregnant each year.(4)
  • In 2001, 49% of pregnancies to women 15-44 in the United States were unintended, and 48% of those occurred during a month when contraceptives were used.(5)
  • More than one-third of all births in the U.S. in 2002 were to unmarried women.(6)

    • 1. Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe et al. "Making a Love Connection: Teen Relationships, Pregnancy, and Marriage." The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. 2008.

    2. Schelar, Erin. "Long-Term Consequences for Teens with Older Sexual Partners." Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 40 (1), 2008.

    3. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "U.S. Birth Rate Reaches Record Low: Births to Teens Continue 12-Year Decline." News Release, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. June 25, 2003.

    4. The Guttmacher Institute. "U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity." New York: The Guttmacher Institute. 2006.

    5. Finer, Lawrence et al. "Disparities in Rate of Unintended Pregnancy In the United States, 1994 and 2001." Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Volume 38, Number 2, June 2006.

    6. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, op. cit.