The teen birth rate for Latina and African-American teens is almost three times as high as it is for white teens in the United States. Cynthia Hassan works with minor moms in Ramsey County as a senior child-protection worker. Hassan and her colleague Kim Maka White generally have a caseload of 55 to 60 teen parents. They help the teens find social services until they move out of the county or turn 18. Hassan has been at her job seven years, and even in that relatively brief period she's seen the situation erode.
Poverty breeds domestic violence, criminal activity, neglect and stress.
Teen pregnancy is part of the cycle. Nelson says that even though girls begin menstruating much earlier than a couple of generations ago, teen birth rates have greatly declined since the 1950s, when girls who got pregnant usually got married. Two incomes are obviously better than one, but for some, marriage is not possible. We stay away from the whole wedlock issue. Conservatives are more than willing to pick up the issue.