Teen Pregnancy In South Carolina

Comprehensive teen teen p[areparenting programs in South Carolina were a result of the public concern for the disproportionate number of teen pregnancies in the state during the 1980s (South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2011). When teen pregnancy numbers declined in the 1990s, South Carolina’s teen pregnancies continued to be higher than the national average. According to The Alan Guttmacher Institute (2004), in the 1990s 56% of teens in South Carolina confessed to having sexual relations compared to 46.7% on the national average. In 1988, births to teens 15-19 were 65 per 1,000 compared to 53 per 1,000 nationally. By the year 2000, teen births in South Carolina dropped to 57 per 1,000, but remained higher than the national average of 48 per 1,000 (The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2004). South Carolina ranked twelfth out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of births for teens aged 15-19 in 2010 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, 2013). …show more content…
Using recent data, state officials determined that schools were an appropriate setting for teen pregnancy prevention programs (National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2007). The South Carolina Comprehensive Health Education Act (CHEA) mandates that complete sex and health education classes are made available. However, despite public support, the number of teen pregnancy prevention programs differs across the state (South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2011). Voters in the state of South Carolina believe teen pregnancy affects both families and communities. They also believe that teen pregnancy eventually hinders teenagers from becoming productive adults (South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy,