On July 16, 2009, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) moderated a Congressional roundtable discussion, “Preventing Teen Pregnancy and Promoting Healthy Relationships Among Youth in Foster Care.”

Senior Researcher Amy Dworsky presented research from Chapin Hall’s longitudinal study, The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Foster Youth, which finds that by age 19, nearly one-half of young women had been pregnant, and nearly one third had given birth. Her remarks included a discussion of why foster youth are a high-risk population when it comes to teen pregnancy and too-early parenthood, and the relevance of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 to pregnancy prevention.

The program was organized by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and the National Foster Care Coalition, which announced at the roundtable the formation of a new working group on teen pregnancy and foster care. The group will provide recommendations to the Obama administration and Congress on solutions to help reduce the disproportionately high teen pregnancy rate among youth in and aging out of foster care.