National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month

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National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (NTPPM) celebrates the historic decline in rates of teen pregnancy and births in the United States and highlights the importance of helping adolescents reach their full potential. This year, the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) focused the observance on elevating youth voices and highlighting the work of OPA grantees.

NTPPM is about more than preventing teen pregnancy. It’s about ensuring positive outcomes for adolescents. Connecting youth to services and opportunities that help them reach their full potential can help prevent teen pregnancy. This means engaging youth within their communities, schools, organizations, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive. Caring adults can work with community partners to engage teens in activities that utilize and enhance their strengths. Learn more about positive youth development.

Teen pregnancy prevention efforts should provide youth with opportunities for healthy and successful development. OPA’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grantees implement effective programs that focus on developing positive outcomes for adolescents, including supporting positive youth development, preventing sexually transmitted infections, building healthy relationships, and more. Learn more about OPA’s grant programs and their accomplishments.

Everyone can play a part in promoting healthy behaviors and outcomes for adolescents. Share the messages and activities on this page with your networks.

#NTPPM 2021

Everyone can play a part in promoting healthy behaviors and outcomes for adolescents year-round. Revisit NTPPM 2021 messages and activities.

Message from Dr. Rachel L. Levine, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health

HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Rachel L. Levine, highlighted how National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month is about more than preventing teen pregnancy.

Grantee Youth Takeover OPA Twitter

On four separate days in May, youth from OPA TPP grantee programs—Sasha Bruce Youthwork, Campesinos Sin Fronteras, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP), and the D.C. Network for Expectant and Parenting Teens (DC NEXT)—took over OPA's Twitter account to share their stories and draw attention to the work being done in their communities.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Is...

Watch OPA’s new video montage, which shares perspectives from youth over the course of the more than 10-year history of the TPP grant program. Footage was shot prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear adolescents discuss how their TPP program helped them develop important skills for adulthood, build healthy relationships, and help foster confidence and dreams of the future.

What It's Like Video Series

Watch OPA’s award winning “What It’s Like” video series to see what OPA grantee youth have shared about their perspectives on positive youth development, healthy relationships, and physical activity. OPA was recognized with a 2021 Hermes Gold award in the Government Video category.

Why Do We Need NTPPM?

Despite historic declines, the teen birth rate in the United States is still higher than that of many other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. 

Almost 172,000 babies were born to young women between the ages of 15 and 19 in the United States in 2019.1

There are especially high birth rates among vulnerable youth, including youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems,2 youth who are homeless, parenting teens, and LGBTQ+ youth.

In 2018, the birth rate per 1,000 females age 15 to 19 in the United States was:3

  • Hispanic = 26.7
  • Black = 26.3
  • White = 12.1

Find ways to get involved and sample language to promote activities in the National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month Toolkit - PDF! (PDF content is undergoing Section 508 review and will be updated pending remediation. For immediate assistance, please contact: opa@hhs.gov.)

Grant Program Accomplishments

OPA’s grantees are working to support replication of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs in communities with the greatest need; increase capacity in communities to serve vulnerable youth, including homeless youth, parenting youth and those in juvenile detention and foster care; fill gaps in the knowledge of what works to prevent teen pregnancy; and test new, innovative approaches to combating teen pregnancy. Grantees are also providing adolescents with access to reproductive and preventive health services. In many cases, Title X clinics are the only ongoing source of healthcare and health education. Most of the individuals served by Title X providers are low-income, female, and under 30 years old. Title X clinics also deliver male-focused family planning and reproductive health services.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grantee Accomplishments

TPP grant programs have developed innovative programs, presented at conferences, and established community partnerships.


In more than 10 years, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program has served more than 1.43 million young people across 41 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Marshall Islands. Currently, the TPP Program serves nearly 250,000 young people per year. This program has trained more than 23,000 professionals and established partnerships with more than 19,700 community-based organizations across the United States. See the TPP grantee accomplishments from 2010-2020. – PDF

Title X Family Planning Clinic Grantee Accomplishments

For 50 years, Title X clinics have served many clients, male and female, as well as adolescents.


For 50 years Title X family planning clinics have provided screening and preventive health services to more than 190 million clients, including 50.8 million adolescents. OPA’s Title X clinics have performed more than 18.3 million HIV tests, 37 million Pap exams, and 42 million breast exams. For many clients, Title X clinics are their only ongoing source of healthcare and health education. See more information about Title X family planning services – PDF.

Key Resources for TPP Programs

Resources

Footnotes

1 Martin, J.A., Hamilton, B.E., Osterman, M.J.K., & Discroll, A.K. (2020). Births: Provisional Data for 2019. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr-8-508.pdf. back to top

2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teen Pregnancy in the United States. Reproductive Health: Teen Pregnancy. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm. back to top

3 Martin, J., Hamilton, B., & Osterman, M. (2019). Births: Final Data for 2018. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_13-508.pdf. back to top