North Carolina Anti-Teen-Pregnancy Program

I have mentioned more than once on this blog about my upbringing and my being surrounded by many middle and high school friends who experienced unplanned pregnancies. For some, it was just a way of life and almost expected because it had become a generational tradition. For others, it was a mistake made in the heat of the moment. Other than sex education being provided at school, what other measures could possibly be taken to prevent the upward trend of teenage pregnancy? A program in North Carolina may have an answer: pay the girls to abstain.

An incentive program that hails from the University of North Carolina called College Bound Sisters targets teenaged girls between the ages of 12 and 18 in order to ensure they stay in school and complete their education without the extra title of “mom.” Participants in this campaign attend weekly hour and a half meetings where they are educated about the advantages of remaining abstinent and how to correctly and consistently use contraceptives like condoms. Every week they remain pregnant-free they have seven dollars put into a fund that they can use once they become college students.

Naturally, a program like this one has not been without controversy. Many do not feel that paying these teenagers money to remain abstinent will send the right message. Bill Albert, the chief program officer at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states, “It makes me a bit uneasy. I do have mixed feelings. It’s hard to pay people to do something that we think they should be doing regardless. It would be like if you didn’t want young people to experiment with marijuana, you’d pay them not to do it.” While Albert has expressed unease about this program, he does feel that coming up with creative ways to combat the increasing teenage pregnancy rate is a step in the right direction.

In recent years, teenage pregnancies have increased after having gone through a fourteen year decline. The current rate is over 7 pregnancies for every 1,000 teenage girls. In addition, by the time a woman reaches the age of 20, 30% of women will become pregnant. Approximately 9 billion dollars are spent a year to help finance teenage pregnancies. Compared to the 9 billion dollars, Albert admits that paying a teenage girl $365 a year to keep her pregnant-free is a pretty “modest investment.”

One of the directors of College Bound Sisters, Dr. Hazel Brown, says of the 125 girls who participated in the program for more than half a year, only six have become pregnant or dropped from the program since its inception in 1997. Brown states that the program only costs $75,000 a year. She states, “We talk about abstinence, but it’s not a requirement. We teach decision-making, being responsible and avoiding pregnancy. The meetings are very interactive.” The group is divided into two age ranges: ages 12 through 14 in the first group and ages 15 through 18 in the second group. Girls who wish to participate in the program must meet four specific requirements: they cannot have been pregnant in the past, they must be college-bound, they must be in school and they must have a sister who became pregnant as a teenager.

Some program participants have completed the program and received $3,000 towards college expenses. Brown feels the program has been highly successful and that anybody who does not think so should remember the “cost of a teen getting pregnant.” She goes on to say, “When you can prevent one of those, you’ve more than paid for a program like this. We want to give them something to work toward. And without exception, our girls have come from homes that did not have someone with a college education …If somebody believes in you, there’s no end to what a lot of people can accomplish.”