Teen girls being paid not to get pregnant

Does a “buck-a-day” keep teen pregnancy away?
By Traci Scott, Oregon writer

An innovative program, College-bound Sisters, was founded at the University of North Carolina with the purpose of incenting girls to keep from getting pregnant. The program pays $1 each day to girls 12 to 18 years old who remain pregnancy free and attend weekly meetings. The money is deposited into an interest-bearing college fund that the girls can collect once they graduate from high school. Some girls have earned as much as $2,000. Nearly 100 percent of the girls who finish the program have gone on to graduate from college. If a girl drops out of the program or gets pregnant, her money is divided among the other girls still in the program.

The teen pregnancy rate in Oregon is currently 9.7%, down from 10.6% in 2006.
School districts in Oregon have the option of participating in the Students Aren’t Ready for Sex (STARS) program. The program teaches high school teens how to help younger middle school peers learn to abstain from sex. The program was first developed by the Multnomah County Health Department in 1995 and offered to 6 Portland area high schools, but it is now offered state-wide to those districts that choose to participate.


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