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Regular Session, 2011 ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 11
BY SENATOR BROOME AND REPRESENTATI VE BARROW
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To designate May 4, 2011, as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day and May, 2011, as Teen
Pregnancy Prevention Month.
WHEREAS, more than seven hundred thousand teenagers become pregnant each
year in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth in
the full industrialized world; and
WHEREAS, after fourteen years of decline, the national teen birth rate rose by five
percent between 2005 and 2007; and
WHEREAS, in Louisiana over eleven thousand girls between fifteen and nineteen
years of age became pregnant in 2005; and
WHEREAS, births to teens count for nearly seventeen percent of all births in
Louisiana and ninety-five percent of teen births are to unmarried teens; and
WHEREAS, only approximately seventy percent of pregnant teens receive prenatal
care, while eighty-five percent is the average for women in Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana encourages its young people to complete their education,
achieve independence, become productive and contributing members of society, and remain
sexually abstinent until marriage, and recognizes that teen pregnancy and childbearing may
compromise these goals; and
WHEREAS, a child is nine times more likely to grow up in poverty if he is born to
unmarried teen parents who have not yet completed high school; and
WHEREAS, less than half of mothers who have a child before they turn eighteen
years of age ever graduate from high school, and less than two percent of mothers who have
children before eighteen years of age have a college degree by the age of thirty; and
WHEREAS, Ginger Douglas, Miss Red River City in the Miss America
Organization, is a senior at Central High School and is promoting teen pregnancy prevention
as her platform; and SCR NO. 11 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, raising awareness and understanding of this complex issue and the
importance of helping teens avoid unintended pregnancy can contribute to the future
reduction of teen pregnancies and help to build stronger families and a healthier society.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
designate May 4, 2011, as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day and May, 2011, as Teen
Pregnancy Prevention Month.
BE IF FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Ginger Douglas.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES