Conferences
Remarks by Douglas J. Besharov
Our topic today is "Pregnancy
Prevention and Welfare Reform." Felicia Stewart,
director of Reproductive Health Programs at the Kaiser
Foundation, was scheduled to give this introduction.
Unfortunately, a family emergency prevented her from
attending today, so I will say a few remarks in her
place.
Our distinguished panels will explore
two different aspects of pregnancy prevention and welfare
reform. First, what are states doing to prevent
subsequent pregnancies and births among women already on
welfare? Research indicates that women on welfare both
have more children and desire more children than women
not receiving assistance. For example, in 1993, Nicholas
Zill of Westat, Inc., analyzed the Census Bureau's Survey
of Income and Program Participation and found that the
mean number of children ever born to women under 45 was
2.59 among those on welfare versus 2.12 among those not
receiving welfare. When he looked only at women ages 40
to 44, who have likely completed their childbearing
years, the gap increased to 3.41 versus 2.38.
Dr. Zill also found that women on
welfare desire larger families. His analysis of the 1988
National Survey of Family Growth found that women on
welfare report that the ideal number of children is 3.0,
compared to 2.7 for all other mothers and 2.5 for
non-poor mothers.
A second question that will be raised
today is what are states doing to prevent first
pregnancies among women, particularly teenagers? This
issue is relevant, because a birth to an unmarried
teenager can have serious social ramifications. In
addition to interfering with the completion of school and
work experience, unmarried teen mothers are at great risk
of welfare dependency. The Congressional Budget Office
found that between 1970 and 1985, 50 percent of unmarried
teen mothers went on welfare within one year of their
first birth; 77 percent did so within five years. Kristin
Moore of Child Trends, Inc., who spoke at our March
session, has found that 59 percent of women on welfare
were 19 or younger when they had their first birth.
The new welfare law, Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), contains a number
of provisions that aim to reduce the number of births to
women on welfare and to prevent first births among those
at risk. These include:
- TANF funds can be used to support
"prepregnancy" family planning;
- States are allowed to impose
family caps; and
- Bonuses will be given to states
that most decrease their "illegitimacy
ratio," that is, reduce nonmarital births
without increasing abortions. $20 million per
year will be available to 5 states.
A number of rules relate directly to
teenagers:
- Teens must live in an
adult-supervised setting;
- Teens must be in a school or
training program;
- $50 million per year is available
to states for abstinence-only education; and
- States can require noncustodial
teen parents to "fulfill community work
obligations."
The extent to which states have
implemented these rules varies widely. For example, less
than half of the states, 22, have adopted family caps.
Among those with a cap in place, the sanctions differ
greatly: some states provide vouchers instead of cash to
a woman who has a subsequent birth; Delaware plans to
sanction first births to unmarried minors. Some states
are using their abstinence grants to fund programs in
schools and community centers; others are launching media
campaigns.
Perhaps one of the most important
issues, which may cut across all states, is the apparent
uneasiness on the part of welfare administrators to
address sensitive issues, such as pregnancy prevention
and contraception, with their clients--and that is
without dealing with the contentious issue of abortion.
Go To: June Agenda