We are a non-profit health care clinic located in Silver Spring, MD (just a 10 minute walk from the Silver Spring metro station).  Our goal is to reduce the number of unintended teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections as well as to promote responsible decision-making regarding sexual health behaviors among 12-35 year olds.  To achieve these goals, the Teen Connection clinic provides a non-judgmental environment where teenagers and young adults can come to receive confidential, comprehensive and compassionate medical care and education.

Mission Statement

Teen Connection of Takoma, Inc. provides reproductive and sexual health care services and education to teenagers and young adults.  Our mission is to provide superior quality health care and education to all patients based on their unique wants and needs.

Despite impressive declines over the past decade, the United States still has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.

There are over 750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81% are to unmarried teens.

After increasing 23% between 1972 and 1990 to an all-time high, the teen pregnancy rate for girls aged 15-19 declined 36% between 1990 and 2002 (the most recent year that nationally-representative data is available).

Put another way, after reaching 117 pregnancies per 1,000 teens aged 15-19 in 1990, the teen pregnancy rate declined to 75 pregnancies per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2002.

Teen pregnancy rates vary among the three largest racial/ethnic groups. Between 1990 and 2002, rates for African-American and non-Hispanic white teens (aged 15-19) declined 40% and 34% respectively. The rate for Hispanics teens aged 15-19 declined 19% during the same time period.

 

(Sources:The Guttmacher Institute. (2006). U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics, National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity. New York: The Guttmacher Institute.)