(Sedgwick County, Kan.) – May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. Sedgwick County Health Department Family Planning Clinic provides family planning services to low-income clients, as well as baseline screening for breast and cervical cancer. While this is a critical time to consider teen pregnancy and how it negatively impacts individuals and the community as a whole, this is a constant focal point for the Health Department.
Teen pregnancies and unintended pregnancies have been linked to premature birth, low birth weight, and increased infant mortality rates due to socioeconomic disadvantage. Sedgwick County is working to reduce these numbers in the community through increased awareness of family planning services and encouraging the use of more effective contraceptive methods.
The disparities are stark: birth rates for African-American and Hispanic teens are about double that of Caucasian teens.1 In 2013, approximately 448,000 pregnancies occurred among teen women ages 15-19 in the U.S.2 Teen childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers between $9.4 and $28 billion a year through public assistance payments, lost tax revenue, and greater expenditures for public health care, foster care, and criminal justice services, reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.3
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the teen pregnancy rate in Sedgwick County was reduced from 45.5 to 33.5 pregnancies per 1,000 females age 15 to 19 from 2013 to 2017.4 By 2020, the Health Department’s goal is to reduce the teen pregnancy rate to less than 13 pregnancies per 1,000 females age 15 to 19 seen in the Family Planning Clinic.
For additional information and resources about family planning services, please visit https://www.sedgwickcounty.org/health/, Sedgwick County Health Department’s Main Clinic at 2716 W. Central, or call 316-660-7300.
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Sources:
1 https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm
4 www.kdheks.gov/phi/adol_teen_preg/Adolescent_Teenage_Pregnancy_17.pdf (page 21 of 60)