Column No. 4934                

HISPANIC LINK                   

07/18/10

  

PREVENTING TEEN PREGNANCY

By Janet Murguía

Hispanic Link News Service

  

Before the age of 20, 52% of Latina teens become pregnant at least once. This means that if you are a Latina teen, you are more likely than not to get pregnant. At almost twice the national average, Latinas have the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates of any major ethnic group in the United States.

  

Even more alarming than the statistics is the narrative behind the numbers. Pregnancy among Latina     teens has stymied their educational attainment, limited their career opportunities and reduced their chances for socioeconomic advancement.

  

More than half (54%) of Hispanic teen mothers drop out of high school, compared to 34% of teen moms nationwide. And studies show that a mother's education level usually predicts the child's highest level of educational attainment.

  

But Evelyn Sánchez, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate, has a different experience than that of most young Latinas.  Evelyn has been a member of the Adolescent Program at Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, a National Council of La Raza affiliate in Washington, D.C., since she was 12 years old.  She has participated in after-school programs at Mary’s Center and is a member of the summer youth employment program Urbanitos.

  

Despite being in an environment where many of her peers are sexually active, Evelyn has been able to avoid becoming a part of the ever-growing teen pregnancy demographic. She is an example of how a strong community-based support system anchored in family involvement can avoid the pitfall of teen pregnancy. 

  

Evelyn spoke recently at an event hosted by NCLR and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, where we joined with other organizations to release a consensus statement that identifies strategies to address the high rates of teen pregnancy in the Latino community.

  

The consensus statement is the result of a convening of 15 national organizations seeking to launch an initiative that implements teen pregnancy prevention programming, policy, advocacy and research efforts. It outlines the aims of the initiative and urges other groups, policymakers and practitioners to answer a call for action.

  

Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard of California has introduced the “Communities of Color Teenage Pregnancy and Prevention Act of 2010” (H.R. 5033) to address this very need.  This legislation would provide funding for new and existing programs, and create a national multimedia educational campaign to increase public awareness of the importance of building healthy relationships to prevent teen pregnancy.

  

The consensus statement aims to promote community-based programs such as the ones at Mary's Center so young women like Evelyn will no longer be the exception.  Never before have national organizations made a collaborative statement and effort to reduce teen pregnancy among Latinas.  Never before has the need been so great.

  

(Janet Murguía is president and CEO of NCLR, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.  For more information about the National Consensus Statement on Latino Teen Pregnancy Prevention, visit http://www.nclr.org/content/news/detail/63960).

   ©2010

   END