Adding It Up: Public and Private Costs of Teen Childbearing

Each year in the United States, nearly one million teenage girls become pregnant and about half give birth. What are the economic, social, and individual costs of teen pregnancy and childbearing? What are the specific costs experienced by federal and state governments as of the mid-2000s? How can advocates, practitioners, and policymakers effectively use these estimates to encourage attention to preventing teen pregnancy? The investigators will explore these questions by: 1) updating the national cost estimates for childbearing among teens aged 17 and younger, 2) generating state-level cost estimates, 3) broadly disseminating these analyses and estimates, and 4) providing technical assistance to help state-level partners educate influential leaders about the value of investing in teen pregnancy prevention.