Contact Name
Barbara Dietsch
562-799-5126
bdietsc@WestEd.org

The 1990s have brought good news: both teen pregnancy and teen birth rates have declined nationwide, in all states, and among all age and racial/ethnic groups–led by both less sexual activity and better contraceptive use. As a nation, we deserve to be proud of these encouraging trends. But even limited success can have a downside if it means that the public and the media begin to believe that the teen pregnancy problem has been solved.

The most important challenge we face now is to keep the nation from becoming complacent about teen pregnancy and childbearing. Teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. remain much too high–two or three times those in other industrialized countries. We still confront a crisis of severe long-term consequences when 4 in 10 teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20.

At the National Campaign, we believe there are two ways to make sure the current positive trends motivate the nation to work even harder to prevent teen pregnancy: (1) enlist new partners, particularly in the entertainment media and faith communities, and (2) re-energize the people who are doing the good work in local communities.

I am convinced that making a real and long-lasting difference in the teen pregnancy problem in the U.S. will require a shift in cultural values and messages. And where better to begin than with the pervasive influence of the entertainment and popular media? We need to tap into this power by involving the media as active partners in our efforts to convince teens that, although sex may seem glamorous, its consequences are not. For this reason, the National Campaign has been working with–rather than against–the producers and writers of such popular shows as "Dawson’s Creek," "King of the Hill," "the Parent Hood," "Party of Five," "Seventh Heaven," and "One Life to Live." We are also working with Black Entertainment Television, ABC, NBC, and FOX, Teen People Magazine, Parenting Magazine, and Sports Illustrated, among many other media leaders.

How do we approach these media entities? With a carrot, not a stick. We try to convince them that teen pregnancy is a big problem and that they can use their tremendous power to make a real difference. Then we offer them a variety of simple messages and concepts for teens that can be woven into their work–such as "not everyone is ‘doing it’" and "contraception works but only if you use it every time." For adult audiences, we stress such messages as "if we want to reduce pregnancies among our daughters, we need to talk to our sons."

I am happy to report that our new friends in the media are beginning to include some of our ideas in their programs and magazines. For instance, ABC’s daytime drama, One Life to Live, just completed a 9-month story about a teen character coping with an unwanted pregnancy. And a recent issue of People magazine features a story on what it’s really like to be a teen mother.

America has always been a spiritual nation, and faith communities are already doing a lot to help teens navigate the often perilous route to adulthood. Among the most influential centers of leadership in the country, they remain in many ways an untapped resource in our work. Our goal in working with faith community leaders is to enlist their interest in preventing teen pregnancy, to learn how they are already supporting families and teenagers themselves, and to explore ways that the Campaign can enhance their efforts.

Last year, the Campaign published Nine Tips to Help Faith Leaders and Their Communities Address Teen Pregnancy, which has been very well received by a diverse group of religious communities. For instance, the Catholic Church sent Nine Tips to every diocese in the nation. To continue this progress, the Campaign is holding a series of local summits with faith leaders around the country to learn about how they are dealing with issues of teen sexuality and responsibility and how we can help them.

Guarding against complacency also means supporting the people who do the real front-line work in communities to prevent teen pregnancy. Just this fall, the Campaign published a practical, three-volume manual for states and communities entitled, Get Organized: A Guide to Preventing Teen Pregnancy, which provides concise tips for communities on how to develop programs and partnerships centered on preventing teen pregnancy. It covers a lot of ground–from strategies for involving boys and men to practical advice about how to raise money and to conduct program evaluation.

One of the parts of the Campaign that I am most proud of is our work to help communities move beyond the conflict that has so often plagued discussions of how to prevent teen pregnancy. As we often say at the Campaign, "for too long, while the adults were arguing, the teens were getting pregnant." But the problem of teen pregnancy is big enough to have room for many solutions. It’s not about choosing between abstinence and contraception. We need more of both.

The National Campaign has worked to help communities around the country agree to disagree about what divides them, find common ground where they can, and move forward together to help young people be pregnancy-free. We have been gratified to find that even in communities that have been ripped apart by controversy over previous prevention efforts, people are eager to try again–but only if they believe that everyone gets a seat at the table.

Our work is not done. Between 1995 and 2010, the number of girls aged 15-19 is projected to increase by 2.2 million. The hard truth is that yesterday’s news about declining teen pregnancy and birth rates won’t mean much to the boys and girls who turn 13 next year. For them, we must redouble our efforts to make sure that they benefit from the successes that their older brothers and sisters have begun to see.