Consider these realities:
• Over two-thirds of abstinence-only education programs, the only sex-education for millions of American youngsters, teach myth as fact, including misinformation about contraceptives and basic science.
• Even the most reliable birth control has a 1 percent failure rate.
• In Miami-Dade County, 13,000 children are on a waiting list for subsidized child care.
• Nationwide, almost 550,000 children are in foster care. Eighty percent of today's prison population and 30 percent of homeless people were once in foster care.
• Of the 550,000 children in foster care today, 100,000 are available and waiting for adoption.
• Fewer than one-third of teen mothers finish high school, and most remain trapped in poverty.
• Compared to the children of older mothers, children of teens have more health problems but receive less healthcare. They commonly do not get essential nurturing or cognitive stimulation, are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade in school and suffer double the rates of abuse and neglect.
• In 2003, poverty rates grew for the third straight year. Nationwide, more than one in three women (35.5 percent) who are single parents are poor.
• Nearly one in five (19.2 percent) nonelderly Florida residents has no health insurance.
• Abortion rates are highest among the poor. While abortion rates began falling more than a decade ago for most segments of the population, they have been rising among the poor. The most frequently cited reasons include financial instability and lack of access to healthcare.
