This booklet seeks to clarify teenagers' rights under New York State and federal law to make their own medical decisions. It is designed as an aid to teenagers and the professionals -- social workers, counselors, teachers, and medical providers -- who work with young people. Frequently, professionals can encourage communication between young…

This book provides an overview of family planning and fertility in the United States, from the number of babies women have to the risks they face in having them and the measures they choose to avoid pregnancy, to the dollars that would be saved with fewer unwanted pregnancies. Based on the social science literature through mid-1997, which is cited…

This report discusses the ongoing movement to provide health care and health information to adolescents through school-based clinics and other programs. The report begins with an overview of programs, focusing on: the unique health needs of adolescents; the growth in the number of school-based clinics; goals and objectives of the special programs;…

School-based health clinics currently exist in 30 cities across the country, and more are being planned. Do the clinics offer students needed health services or undermine parental authority by offering birth control information? Discusses the benefits such clinics provide, their widespread supporters, and their opponents. (MD)

A study compared the effective v ineffective use of contraceptives at a major university by comparing college women who had experienced birth control failure with those who had not. Factors related to a woman's use of a contraceptive device include: satisfaction with its aesthetic properties; trust in its effectiveness; a feeling of comfort…

This toolkit presents emergency contraception (EC) as a method to help adolescent women avoid pregnancy and abortion after unprotected sexual intercourse. The sections of this toolkit are designed to help increase your knowledge of EC and stay up to date. They provide suggestions for increasing EC awareness in the workplace, whether it is a school…

One of eight papers from Project Seed, this paper describes a project in which 10 alternative high school students, one teacher, and one aide researched, wrote, interviewed, taped, and edited a 64-minute news format video on a variety of sexuality issues: anatomy, physiology, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, pregnancy options…

There is a high correlation between adolescent women's educational skills, goals, and family income and the likelihood of pregnancy. Schools have a statutory duty to provide health instruction; this may include pregnancy-prevention programs. Includes discussion of Acquired Immune Defficiency Syndrom (AIDS) and school responsibility for educational…

Offers suggestions on the sensitive issues involved in sex education: involve the community; incorporate it into the curriculum; provide clear, direct prevention messages; provide good instruction; discuss abstinence before condom use; do not teach anything that parents, administrators, and the school board do not know about; and do not delay. (SM)

To counter the teenage pregnancy epidemic, sex education should be expanded to a twelve year learning program. Schools must develop imaginative and innovative programs geared to their individual and community needs. School-based medical clinics and special programs for pregnant and parenting teens may be necessities in some communities. (MD)

This guide, written for health managers and clinicians, provides information to meet the family planning needs of migrant farmworkers of Mexican culture. The promotion of maternal and child health for migrant farmworker families has brought attention to the incidence of high risk pregnancies among this population. Research indicates that a need…

This guidebook is designed to assist health workers in the delivery of information and education regarding reproductive health and fertility control to family planning clients. Aspects of services that might be provided by various staff members are suggested. Initially, family planning philosophy from which general operating principles are derived…

Reviews the problems of teenage pregnancy, including the costs to society, the challenge to educators, and the types of preventive programs developing across the country. Programs dealing strictly with reproduction and contraception are the least effective deterrents to teenage pregnancy. (MD)

When the school board of Alexandria, Virginia, considered establishing a school-based health clinic as part of a plan to combat teenage pregnancy, the concept mushroomed into a controversy. Evaluates what occurred and how it can be prevented in other schools districts. (MD)

This guide provides information in English, Bosnian, Russian, Spanish, and Nuer on family planning. Topics covered include a variety of birth control methods: abstinence, condoms, contraceptive foam, birth control pills, the Depo-Provera shot, the Norplant implant, diaphragms, intrauterine devices, natural family planning, sterilization, and the…