A new study shows Mississippi's epidemic of teen pregnancies is costing far more than previously thought - more than $154 million a year from taxpayers.
As The Clarion-Ledger reported, that includes increased costs of foster care, social services and incarceration for young people born years ago to teen moms.
"This is not an unsolvable problem," says Carol Penick, executive director of the Women's Fund, which sponsored the study by the nonprofit Mississippi Economic Policy Center. The state's new "abstinence plus" sex education program for public schools can help address it.
And as Jamie Holcomb, director of programs for the Women's Fund said, parents "are part of the solution" by talking to their children about sex.
Districts must choose between teaching abstinence-only or "abstinence-plus," which includes information about contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases. Each district must adopt a policy by June 30, 2012.
The rest of the article is available here.
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