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Preventing Teen Pregnancy in the US
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More than 400,000 teen girls, aged 15-19 years, give birth each year in the US. The media often glamorize teens having sexual intercourse and teen parenting, but the reality is starkly different. Having a child during the teen years carries high costs—emotional, physical, and financial—to the mother, father, child, and community. Parents, educators, public health and medical professionals, and community organizations all have a role to play in reducing teen pregnancy. During the past 20 years, the rate of teen girls having children has dropped by about 40% to its lowest level since records began being kept 70 years ago. Despite this good news, there is still much work to do, because teen pregnancy has such a huge impact on the future of America's children.
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