Twilight Box Office Success Gets Teens Talking About Pregnancy

Newly Revamped TeenSource.org Encourages Teens to Continue the Conversation Online

LOS ANGELES, Ca – November 29, 2011 –  Ten days after its onscreen debut, teens and their parents are still talking about the teen pregnancy storyline in Breaking Dawn, the latest movie in the Twilight Saga.  The best-seller adaptation has grossed $221.3 million since its release Nov. 18 and continues to reign at the box office as fans return for repeat viewings. 

To help turn the Twilight craze into a learning opportunity, California Family Health Council (CFHC) is encouraging teens to visit their newly revamped sexual health site, TeenSource.org, and start a conversation about safe sex, love, and healthy relationships.

“We saw the release of Breaking Dawn with a teen pregnancy plot as a perfect opportunity to re-launch TeenSource.  Popular media has been an effective way to start a conversation with teens about sex for years.  When teens see a character they like dealing with pregnancy, it makes them stop and think about what they might do in a similar situation,” says CFHC’s President and CEO Julie Rabinovitz. 

Research shows that over half of teens today go online to find out information about sex.  According to the latest TeenMobile report by Nielsen, teens are also sending or receiving over 3,000 texts a month – that’s more than six per every hour they’re awake.  To capitalize on these trends, TeenSource works in tandem with CFHC’s text message program that lets mobile phone users text “HOOKUP” to 61827 to receive weekly sexual health info and life advice on their phones. 

“TeenSource averages over 50,000 unique visitors per month and we hope to double that number in the coming year.  By speaking to youth where they are – online and on their phones – with youth generated web content and text messages, we hope they’ll learn to make better informed decisions about sex and their sexual health,” says Rabinovitz.

Additional site resources include:

• Clinic Finder – A clinic location finder that connects teens to local clinics by entering a zip code,
• Birth Control FAQ – A detailed section for teens to get the facts on various forms of birth control from barrier methods to hormonal and long-term methods,
• STD FAQ – Comprehensive information teens need to know about STD awareness and testing,
• Know Your Rights – A guide for teens about their rights to accessing sexual and reproductive health care.

Content on the site will be continually updated, and new features will be added in the coming weeks and months, including more teen authored blogs, polls, contests, and a new condom access project.  Teens are encouraged to read the latest blog on Breaking Dawn and share their thoughts.

“Teen birth rates are at a record low in the U.S. thanks in part to digital sex education strategies like these.  Online and texting strategies have become a critical piece of the prevention puzzle and further investments in this area are crucial if we want to maintain our progress,” says Rabinovitz. 

About California Family Health Council:  TeenSource.org is a project of the California Family Health Council (CFHC), a nonprofit organization working to improve the health and well-being of California families and communities by increasing access to high quality, comprehensive and affordable sexual and reproductive health services.

U.S. Teen Birth Rate Drops 9%, California Leads the Way

LOS ANGELES, CA – November 18, 2011 – According to the latest data released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the birth rate for U.S. teens hit a record low in 2010 falling to 34.3 births per 1,000 teenagers aged 15-19.  California continues to play a critical role in this national success story, with a decline of 9.9 percent for teens aged 15-19. 

“The unprecedented drop in the teen birth rate further underscores the importance of Title X and statewide programs like California's Fam­ily Planning, Access, Care and Treat­ment, Family PACT,” said Julie Rabinovitz, President and CEO of the California Family Health Council.  “Fam­ily PACT, combined with the pre­vention activ­ities support­ed by fed­eral Ti­tle X funding, has dramatically decreased the rates of adult and teen unin­tended pregnancies statewide.  Without these programs, many teens would not have access to the confidential, comprehensive, and no cost contraceptive services they need to help them prevent pregnancy.” 

Title X of the Public Health Services Act is the cornerstone of the federal domestic family-planning program. It is the only federal program exclusively dedicated to family planning and reproductive-health services.  In California, Title X and Family PACT make up a critical piece of the state’s teen pregnancy prevention strategy. 

• Title X clinics provide comprehensive health services in 43 of the state’s 58 counties
• In 2010 alone, Title X clinics in California served 1,222,677 patients
• Of those patients, 244,363 -- approximately 20% -- were 19 or younger
• Roughly one out of every five Family PACT clients is under 20 years old

Cost-benefit analysis further stresses the importance of programs like Title X and Family PACT:

• Unplanned pregnancies cost taxpayers an estimated $11 billion per year. Without publicly funded family planning services, these costs would be 60 percent higher.

• Every $1 invested in Title X and in helping women and teens avoid unwanted pregnancies saves taxpayers $4.02.
• The total public sector cost-savings of the pregnancies averted attributable to Family PACT female clients in 2007 was $1.88 billion from conception to age two.
• Although adolescents account for approximately 27% of the total pregnancies averted by Family PACT, they account for 44% of the cost-savings.

“While the continuing decline in the teen birth rate is a great public achievement worth celebrating, we must remember that our work is far from over. We must continue to invest in cost-saving programs like Title X and Family PACT if we want to maintain our significant progress,” said Rabinovitz.

To view the full report from NCHS, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_02.pdf 

For more information on the California Family Health Council, visit www.cfhc.org.