Blog Posts

Budget cuts threaten program for pregnant and parenting teens in Philadelphia

Jen R

The ELECT (Education Leading to Employment and Career Training) program in Philadelphia is under threat from budget cuts. ELECT is helping about 1,000 pregnant and parenting teens finish high school and start building a solid future for themselves and their children.

When Quentina Fields found out she was pregnant – at 17, a junior at Bartram High School – the news was so disorienting, it felt as if it were happening to someone else.

"Like out of a movie," she said.

Teachers took Fields to the school ELECT program, which helps pregnant students and young mothers stay in class and graduate.

In November, Fields gave birth to a son. And in June, bolstered by parent training and academic tutoring, she accepted her diploma.

Now the future of ELECT has grown hazy.

"Program for pregnant students has unclear future" – Philadelphia Inquirer

The program will probably not be eliminated, but may be scaled back. Nationwide, about 60 percent of girls who have children while in high school drop out. Without programs like ELECT, girls in high school who get pregnant face bleak prospects — and strong incentives for abortion.

Blog Posts

Great news for women’s and children’s health

Jen R

The Institute of Medicine has issued its recommendations for a range of preventive health services that it says should be covered for all U.S. women without a co-pay under the Affordable Care Act. Several of these recommendations improve not only women's health, but that of their children as well.

The eight recommendations include:

  • screening for gestational diabetes
  • HPV testing as part of cervical cancer screening for women over 30
  • counseling on sexually transmitted infections
  • counseling and screening for HIV
  • contraceptive methods and counseling to prevent unintended pregnancies
  • lactation counseling and equipment to promote breast-feeding
  • screening and counseling to detect and prevent interpersonal and domestic violence
  • yearly well-woman preventive care visits to obtain recommended preventive services

The recommendations will now go to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is scheduled to issue the final rule for insurers in August.

The report will be discussed Wednesday, July 20, at a public briefing beginning at 10 a.m. EDT at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. A live audio webcast of the briefing will be available at www.nationalacademies.org if you would like to listen.