Vital Signs

The US government is:

• Expanding prevention resources through the President's Teen Pregnancy Initiative, which involves the Office of Adolescent Health, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Population Affairs, CDC and many other DHHS agencies.
• Working to reach the Healthy People 2020 national objectives to reduce unintended teen pregnancy and improve adolescent health.
• Recommending programs that reach teens that have been demonstrated to work, help parents communicate with their teens, and improve sexual and reproductive health services. Learn more about CDC's role in these and other activities.

Health care providers can:

• Provide teen-friendly, culturally appropriate services for sexual and reproductive health.
• Increase the availability of birth control to sexually active teens and provide instruction on using methods consistently and correctly.
• Offer teens long-acting reversible birth control (for example, IUDs and long-acting implants).

Communities can:

• Promote youth development programs that keep teens in school, offer after-school supervised activities, and teach life skills.
• Make it easy for teens who are already sexually active to get services, including birth control, other medical care, and sex education that has been proven to work.
• Support youth programs for teens at risk. These include girls who have already been pregnant, and boys and girls who have a parent or sibling who has been a teen parent, live in foster care, or attend school or programs for troubled teens.

Parents, guardians and caregivers can:

• Talk to your teens about the importance of sexual and reproductive health, including delaying sex, avoiding pregnancy, using birth control, having respectful and honest relationships, and being aware of dating violence.
• Know where your teens are, what they are doing, and who they are with, particularly after school.
• Talk to community leaders about the need for effective programs that prevent teen pregnancy and address overall sexual and reproductive health.

Teens can:

• Understand that both boys and girls share responsibility for avoiding teen pregnancy.
• Resist peer pressure to start having sex before you are emotionally ready.
• Talk openly about sexual health issues with parents, other adults you trust, and peers.
• If having sex, use birth control correctly and consistently every time.