Reducing Teen Pregnancy: Adolescent Family Life and Abstinence Education Programs

Carmen Solomon-Fears
Specialist in Social Policy

In 2007, 48% of students in grades 9-12 reported that they had experienced sexual intercourse; about 20% of female teens who have had sexual intercourse become pregnant each year. In recognition of the often negative, long-term consequences associated with teenage pregnancy, Congress has provided funding for the prevention of teenage and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. This report discusses three programs that exclusively attempt to reduce teenage pregnancy. The Adolescent Family Life (AFL) demonstration program was enacted in 1981 as Title XX of the Public Health Service Act, and the Abstinence Education program was enacted in 1996 as part of the welfare reform legislation. Also, since FY2001, additional funding for community-based abstinence education programs has been included in annual Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations. 

No abstinence-only education funding has been appropriated for FY2010. Instead, P.L. 111-117, the Consolidated Appropriations for FY2010, includes a $110 million new discretionary teenage pregnancy prevention program for FY2010. The new program would provide grants and contracts, on a competitive basis, to public and private entities to fund "medically accurate and age appropriate" programs that reduce teen pregnancy. This report will be updated periodically. 

(For information on the Obama Administration's and Congress' new approach to teen pregnancy prevention, see CRS Report R40618, Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Background and Proposals in the 111th Congress.) .


Date of Report: February 2, 2010
Number of Pages: 10
Order Number:RS20873
Price: $29.95

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