Fact Sheet: The President's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative

The President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative:

Providing Young People the Information and Skills They Need

Provide $130 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative to continue current cooperative agreements and ensure vital programming to an additional 100,000 more youth to receive the sex education and positive youth development programs they need to make safe and healthy decisions.

The President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI), first funded in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 at $110 million, provides competitive contracts and grants to public and private entities. The Initiative funds medically accurate and age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy and associated risk behaviors and covers costs associated with administering and evaluating the program.

TPPI is administered by the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH), in cooperation with the Administration for Children and Families and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). TPPI was funded at $105 million in FY 2012 and President Obama requested level funding for the program for FY 2013, which includes:

$75 million available for Tier 1 grants to replicate evidence-based programs that have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy, behavioral risk factors underlying teenage pregnancy, or other associated risk factors. There are 75 cooperative agreements under Tier 1.
$25 million available for Tier 2 research and demonstration grants to develop, replicate, refine, and test additional models and innovative strategies for preventing teenage pregnancy. There are 19 cooperative agreements for Tier 2. In addition, there are cooperative agreements awarded by the CDC in partnership with OAH for community-wide teenage pregnancy prevention programs, with a focus on African American and Latino/Hispanic youth aged 15–19.
The remaining funding is used for research, evaluation, and technical assistance.

In addition, we request that the Committee provide level funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evaluation at the FY 2012 level of $8.5 million. The continuation of this funding is vital to further ongoing evaluation efforts and to expand the list of evidence-based programs available for preventing unintended teen pregnancy, STIs, and other associated sexual risk behaviors.

Teens need accurate and complete information to help them both postpone sexual activityand protect themselves if they become sexually active.

The U.S. has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world.Each year in the U.S., more than 750,000 women aged 15-19 become pregnant, with more than 80 percent of these pregnancies unintended.
While young people in the U.S., aged 15–25, make up only one-quarter of the sexually active population, they contract about half of the 19 million sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) annually. The CDC estimates that one in four teen girlshas an STD.
Young people aged 13–29 account for over one-third of the estimated 50,000 new HIV infections each year, the largest share of any age group. Two young people every hour are infected with HIV.

Citations: Hall HI, Song R, Rhodes P, et 1. al. Estimation of HIV incidence in the United States. JAMA. 2008;300:520–529; Prejean J, Song R, Hernandez A, Ziebell R, Green T, et al. (2011) Estimated HIV Incidence in the United States, 2006–2009. PLoS ONE 6(8): e17502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017502. Lorrie Gavin, et al., “Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10–24 Years – United States, 2002–2007,” Surveillance Summaries, vol. 58, number SS-6 (Atlanta, GA: Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, 17 July 2009), 47.

Comprehensive Sex Education Programs Work to Protect Young People’s Health
Research proves that more comprehensive approaches to sex education such as those funded through TPPI can decrease sexual risk behaviors among students, including^[1]—

delaying sexual intercourse
increasing condom or contraceptive use
reducing the number of partners
decreasing the number of times students have unprotected sex

Research has found that teens who report that they received more comprehensive approaches to sex education are 50 percent less likely to experience an unintended pregnancy^.[2]
Strong evidence indicates that sex education programs that promote abstinence as well as the use of condoms do not increase sexual behavior.^[3]

Teens who receive sex education that includes abstinence and contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only-until-marriage messages to delay sexual activity and use contraception when they do become sexually active.^[4]

Leading Medical Professional Groups Support Comprehensive Sex Education

Leading public health and medical professional organizations all stress the need for sexuality education that includes messages about abstinence and provides young people with information about contraception for the prevention of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STDs.

Supporters of comprehensive sex education include: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Public Health Association, the Institute of Medicine, and the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine.
The American Medical Association, for example, “urges schools to implement comprehensive, developmentally appropriate sexuality education programs” and “supports federal funding of comprehensive sex education programs that stress the importance of abstinence in preventing unwanted teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and also teach about contraceptive choices and safer sex.”^[5]

Comprehensive Sex Education is Supported by the Vast Majority of Americans

An overwhelming majority of parents, young people, and voters from across the political spectrum and regardless of religious affiliation support young people receiving comprehensive information about sexuality.

According to the results of a 2005–2006 nationally representative survey of U.S. adults published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, more than eight in 10 polled support comprehensive sex education.^[6]
A survey conducted by Kennedy School of Government, Kaiser Family Foundation, and National Public Radio found that over 90% of parents of middle school and high school students believe it is very or somewhat important to have sexuality education as part of the school curriculum.^[7]
A majority of voters in nearly every demographic category, including Democrats, Republicans, and independents, as well as Catholics and evangelical Christians, support comprehensive sex education.^[8]

[1]Douglas Kirby , Emerging Answers 2007: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2007), 15.

[2]Pamela Kohler, et al. “Abstinence-only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy.” Journal of Adolescent Health, April 2008, 42(4): 344-351.

[3]Mark Schuster, et al. Impact of a high school condom availability program on sexual attitudes and behaviors, Family Planning Perspectives, 1998, 30(2):67-72 & 88. And Jane Mauldon, et. al., The effects of contraceptive education on method use at first intercourse, Family Planning Perspectives, 1996, 28:19-24 & 41.

[4]Jennifer Manlove, et al., Contraceptive use and consistency in U.S. teenagers’ most recent sexual relationships, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2004, 36(6):265-275.

[5]Policy Statement, H-170.968 Sexuality Education, Abstinence, and Distribution of Condoms in Schools, American Medical Association, accessed 04 January 2007, <http://www.ama-assn.org/apps/pf_new/pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-170.968.HTM>.

[6]Amy Bleakley, PhD, MPH, et. al., Public Opinion on Sex Education in US Schools, Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine,.2006; 160:1151-1156.

[7]Sex Educationin America: General Public/Parents Survey (Washington, DC: National Public Radio, KaiserFamily Foundation, Kennedy School of Government, 2004).

[8]Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., “Memorandum: Application of Research Findings,” (Washington, DC: Planned Parenthood Federation of America and National Women’s Law Center, 12 July 2007), accessed 2 October 2007, <http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/7-12-07interestedpartiesmemo.pdf>.

Updated May 2012

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Fact Sheet: The President's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative