Federal Family Planning Programs and Teen Sex

A cynic might point out that while spending on Title X (the umbrella that includes most of these programs) has now grown to almost $200 million per year, teen pregnancy continues to rise. Have they accomplished anything at all?

We might get a glimpse of their effectiveness by looking at what happened in the early 1980's. There was a dispute between the administration and Congress over how Title X money should be spent, and they ended up actually reducing appropriations (rare for a government program). As federal family planning activities had to be cut back, what happened to teen pregnancy rates? (Note: the following chart lists out-of-wedlock births and abortions rather than total pregnancies, because that's the data actually available.)

Federal Pregnancy Prevention and Teen Pregnancy [1]

Year	Title X ($ millions)	Out-of-Wedlock Births (thousands)	Abortions (thousands)	Total (thousands)
1970	6.0	190	46	236
1971	61.8	194	138	332
1972	100.6	202	183	385
1973	100.6	205	232	437
1974	100.6	210	278	488
1975	100.6	222	325	547
1976	113.6	225	363	588
1977	135.0	240	398	638
1978	135.0	240	419	659
1979	162.0	253	445	698
1980	161.0	263	445	708
1981	124.2	259	433	692
1982	124.0	260	419	679
1983	140.0	261	411	672
1984	142.5	261	n/a	n/a
1985	n/a	271	399	670

Or let's look at it graphically:

Maybe the cynic would be right after all.

Posted 15 Sep 2000.

Copyright 1995,2000 by Ohio Right to Life and Pregnant Pause
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