Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) released the following statement after a new report from the non-partisan Guttmacher Institute revealed that pregnancy rates among 15-19-year-olds rose 3 percent from 2005-2006. This marks the first year that teen pregnancy rates increased since 1990.

“A decade of abstinence only education, costing $1.5 billion, has clearly gotten us nowhere. When teenage childbearing costs the taxpayers billions of dollars a year, how can anyone honestly advocate for pouring more money into abstinence only education programs that just do not work? We need common sense, medically accurate, sexuality education programs to combat this alarming rise in teen pregnancy rates. My legislation, the Prevention First Act, will establish teen pregnancy prevention programs whose effectiveness has been scientifically proven,” said Slaughter.

A summary of the Prevention First Act is below.

Title I: Authorizes $700 million in funding for Title X women’s clinics.

Title II: Requires private health plans to cover FDA-approved prescription contraceptives and related medical services.

Title III: Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and disseminate information about emergency contraception (EC) to the public and to health care providers.

Title IV: Requires that hospitals receiving federal funds provide victims of sexual assault with information and access to EC.

Title V: Provides annual funding to public and private entities to establish or expand teenage pregnancy prevention programs.

Title VI: Requires federally funded programs that provide information on the use of contraceptives to ensure that the information is medically accurate and includes health benefits and failure rates.

Title VII: Strengthens Medicaid coverage of family planning services, by ensuring that services remain accessible to low-income women; and requires states to extend coverage for family planning services and supplies to women who would be entitled to Medicaid funded prenatal, labor, delivery and postpartum care if they became pregnant.

Title VIII: Provides for comprehensive, medically accurate sex education programs that teach young people about abstinence, health and contraceptives.