Fund Proven Teen Pregnancy Prevention Interventions

What Can Policymakers Do?

  • Support local capacity and flexibility to implement evidence-based programs. North Carolina’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program grants support local agencies to deliver programs with evidence of success in delaying sexual initiation, improving contraceptive use, and/or reducing adolescent pregnancy. Programs can also include components such as academic assistance, parent involvement, service learning, career awareness, job skills development, individual counseling, linkages with medical and preventive health services and information, cultural enrichment, and recreation.

  • Require medically accurate, age-appropriate content in curriculum-based programs. Similar to states like Hawaii, Wisconsin adopted legislation (PDF) requiring that sex education instruction be accurate, age-appropriate, and teach students about both contraception and abstinence. Local school boards retain the decision to offer sex education, and parents are permitted to remove their children from the class.