Policy Alternative - Teenage Pregnancy Reduction

Most people agree that there are too many teen pregnancies and that these pregnancies carry a tremendous cost to the taxpayer and to the teen mother. In 2000, in the 15-19 year old age group, there were 821,810 pregnancies and 468,990 births in the US .

Numerous programs most of which involve education, availability of birth control or promotion of abstinence have been tried and all of these programs have failed to make any significant, national reduction in teen pregnancy.

In addition to the direct costs of teen pregnancy such as maternity care for young girls who frequently don't have medical insurance and support costs including welfare and food stamps, there are significant indirect costs. A teen mother who is often a single parent, is usually not equipped to raise a child with the guidance and support necessary to make the child a success in life. All too often, the children of teenage parents become teenage parents themselves, fail to achieve a good eduction and frequently have trouble with the law thereby increasing costs to society for police, courts and jails.

So, what might work? One method that has consistently been proven to modify behavior is to pay for the desired behavior. For instance, this has worked to increase the grades for students in inner city schools. So, why not pay teenage girls to not get pregnant? Perhaps a monthly stipend of $200 to each female between the ages of 15 and 19 inclusive. If you have become pregnant even if the pregnancy is terminated then you are no longer eligible. Perhaps there would be a family income cutoff.

As of 7/1/2008, there were 10.5 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 inclusive. At $200 per month, assuming that all 10.5 million girls were eligible, the annual cost would be $2.5B in stipends plus administrative costs.

With an average cost of a normal delivery at $7,000, an average 1st year medical cost of $49K for a premature birth, an average of 12.1% of all deliveries a premature birth in 2002, a 10% reduction in birth rates for 15 to 19 year olds would save over $566 million per year just in birth costs. These savings do not include savings in food stamps, welfare, education and other related costs.

This stipend would put additional money in the hands of some of the most needy people in the US. For as little as $200 per month, I expect that most mothers would make sure that their daughters kept their legs crossed. For $200 a month, a teenage girl would easily be able to understand the cost of risky sexual behavior and the money provided by a stipend might enable her to pursue and education.

Any reduction in teen pregnancy would also result in a reduced number of abortions. The CDC tracks the number of abortions and in 2005 there were 118,131 abortions (table 4) performed on girls between 15 and 19 years of age in the US in the 46 states and the District of Columbia. Note that the CDC number of reported abortions did not include abortions performed for residents from Alaska, California, New Hampshire and Oklahoma due to reporting issues. In 1997, 23% of total US reported abortions were performed in California so the number of legal abortions performed in 2005 on girls between the ages of 15 and 19 would be closer to 145,000.

Update 12SEP09 - A recent OECD study reported that public spending on each US child through the age of 18, not including spending on health, is $140.0K. A 10% reduction in births in one year would result in a savings of $6.6 billion over 18 years not including public spending on health care.