IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 412 
Supporting the goals and ideals of a National Day to Prevent Teen 
Pregnancy. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 6, 2009 
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut (for himself, Mr. CASTLE, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. 
SLAUGHTER, Mrs. BIGGERT, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of 
Florida, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. COHEN, Mr. MASSA, Mrs. MALONEY, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. MORAN of 
Virginia, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. KENNEDY, and Mr. RYAN of Ohio) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Supporting the goals and ideals of a National Day to Prevent 
Teen Pregnancy. 
Whereas according to the National Center for Health Statis-
tics, more than 700,000 teenagers become pregnant each 
year; 
Whereas despite progress over the last decade, 3 in 10 teen-
agers in the United States become pregnant, which the 
United Nations Health Statistics Division ranks as the 
highest teen pregnancy rate among comparable countries; 
Whereas after 14 years of straight decline, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention announced in March 
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2009 that the national teen birth rate rose by 5 percent 
between 2005 and 2007; 
Whereas the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Un-
wanted Pregnancy estimates that African-American and 
Hispanic/Latina teens are twice as likely as White teens 
to become pregnant, as 53 percent of Latina teens and 
51 percent of African-American teens, as compared to 19 
percent of White teens, will become pregnant by age 20; 
Whereas teen pregnancy is closely linked to a number of crit-
ical social issues such as poverty, educational attainment, 
involvement in the criminal justice, child welfare systems, 
and more; 
Whereas according to an analysis by The National Campaign 
to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, teen child-
bearing costs United States taxpayers billions of dollars 
each year as a result of the negative social and health 
outcomes for the children of teen parents, such as an in-
creased use of the child welfare, foster care, and public 
health care systems; 
Whereas research on child poverty rates shows that a child 
is 9 times more likely to grow up in poverty if he or she 
is born to unmarried teen parents who have not yet com-
pleted high school; 
Whereas less than half of mothers who have a child before 
they turn 18 ever graduate from high school, and less 
than 2 percent of mothers who have children before 18 
have a college degree by age 30; 
Whereas children of teen mothers are more likely to be born 
prematurely and at low birth weight; 
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Whereas children of teen parents are 2 times more likely to 
suffer abuse and neglect than would occur if their moth-
ers had delayed childbearing; 
Whereas according to several leading public health and ma-
ternal and child health experts, planned pregnancy re-
sults in better outcomes due to necessary resources and 
support systems are more likely to be in place than for 
unplanned pregnancy; and 
Whereas the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Un-
planned Pregnancies, with its partnering national organi-
zations, recognizes May 6 as National Day to Prevent 
Teen Pregnancy: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the goals and ideals of the Na-
tional Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy to raise 
awareness about the importance of this critical issue, 
promote parent-child communication, and invest in 
programs that have been proven to reduce teen preg-
nancy; 
(2) encourages the people of the United States 
to join with more than 175 national partners, 50 
State and local organizations, and more than 
300,000 individuals who will take this year’s Na-
tional Day Quiz to observe the National Day to Pre-
vent Teen Pregnancy and to participate in activities 
that will help teens think carefully about sex and 
contraception, the possibility of pregnancy, and the 
lifelong challenges of being a parent; and 
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(3) supports a renewed focus on preventing teen 
pregnancy, especially given the recent rise in the na-
tional teen birth rate after 14 years of steady de-
cline, that will allow us to address the Nation’s high 
rates of teen pregnancies and births and continue 
the impressive progress made on this issue since the 
early 1990s. 
Æ 
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