Researchers put a price tag last week on the amount society pays to deal with the problems associated with teenage pregnancy: $7 billion a year.
Researchers at the New York City-based Robin Hood Foundation studied 175,000 women who had their first child by age 17, and compared them with mothers of similar backgrounds who delayed parenthood until age 20 or 21.
The study concluded that teenage mothers cost the country billions more each year for food stamp and welfare benefits, medical care, prison construction, foster care, and lost productivity than women who had their children three or four years later.
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