July 22, 2009

Birth control

by Richard A. Kauffman

Ben Elsen reports on College Bound Sisters, a program based at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro that pays girls ages 12 to 18 a dollar for every day that they don’t get pregnant. The goal is not just to prevent teen pregnancies but to encourage girls to graduate from high school and enroll in college (the money is earmarked for college tuition).

The girls also meet in weekly classes where abstinence is encouraged, and birth control promoted for those who are sexually active. Of the students who stuck with the program, 5 percent got pregnant. A sample of girls not in the program found that the pregnancy rate was four times higher and enrollment in college half as likely.

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