Increase in Teen Pregnancy

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Posted by rfathers on January 26, 2010

Last February 11, 2009 we reported on this blog about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ report, Births: Final Data for 2006, which detailed the 3% increase in the birthrate for teenagers bringing the total annual number of births to teenage mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 to 435,436 (10.2% of total births in the U.S. in 2006).

(See that February 11th – blog entry – Births to Teenagers.)

At that time, we promised to bring you more information. Now, the Guttmacher Institute has issued two new reports, (1) U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity on Teen Pregnancy and (2) Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health. Some of the conclusions in the reports are:

• Between 1990 and 2005:
  • 41 percent decline in pregnancies among teenaged girls
  • births among teen girls decreased 35 percent
  • teen abortions declined 56 percent between 1988 and 2005

• In 2005
  • the U.S. teenage pregnancy rate reached its lowest point in more than 30 years

• In 2006:
  • the U.S. teenage pregnancy rate increased for the first time in more than a decade, rising 3%
  • 750,000 women younger than 20 became pregnant
  • about 7% of women (age 15-19) became pregnant
  • among all racial and ethnic groups, the teen birthrate reversed its downward trend
  • there were 200,420 abortions among 15–19-year-olds
  • 27% of pregnancies among 15–19-year-olds
    ended in abortion

• In 2007:
  • the teen birth rate rose for the second year in a row – about 1 percent (according to a recent U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention study released late last year and published in the Dec. 21, 2009, online edition of Pediatrics)

The Guttmacher Institute Reports

1. Kost K, Henshaw S. and Carlin L., U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity, 2010, Guttmacher Institute Report.
2. Facts on American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health, Fact on Teens

Why do you think the downward trend reversed and now teen pregnancy is on the rise? What are the causes? What are the solutions? Please comment below.

Help for Combatting Teen Pregnancy

• Christianity Today – “What Works: Why Teens Choose Purity” – Why Teens Choose Purity
• Crosswalk.com- “Real Solutions to Teen Pregnancy” – Real Solutuions
• Christian Mommies – “Mothers’ Influence on Adolescent Sex – How Being Connected to Your Child Can Promote Abstinence” – Mothers’ Influence
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I must admit that I was surprised to find very few resources on-line for this topic. If you know of any please give us the information in a comment below. Thank you!