Teen Pregnancies On The Rise
According to a new report on Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, teen pregnancies are on the rise after a decade-long decline.
Teen pregnancies rose 3 percent in 2006. The actual figures showed a 4 percent rise in birthrates but also a 1 percent rise in abortions.
In the United States, where teens have higher pregnancy, birth and abortion rates, the report showed that that 71 pregnancies occurred for every 1,000 teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19.
Pregnancy rates were down for black teenage girls, but along with Hispanic teens, they were still significantly higher than for white teenage girls. Rates were up for all other ethnic groups, according to the report.
In the US, New Mexico had the highest rate of teen pregnancies with nine percent, followed by Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Mississippi. The lowest rates occurred in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota.
Abstinence-only programs, backed by many social conservative groups who oppose teaching of contraception methods in US schools, received nearly 1.3 billion dollars in federal funds since the late 90s. The Obama administration eliminated the budget spending for abstinence-only programs in 2010. The funds are being moved to other areas including pregnancy prevention education that does include abstinence along with important teaching tools and information.
Larry Finer, Guttmacher’s director for domestic research, said in a telephone interview with Reuters, “We’re not quite sure yet whether this is just a blip or whether it’s the beginning of a longer upward trend,” referring to the rates in pregnancies. “It’s interesting to note that this flattening out of the rate and the increase in the rate is happening at the same time that we’ve seen substantial increases in funding for abstinence-only programs.”
The decline in the late 90s was most likely due to improved contraceptive use among teenagers, however, Finer did not have immediate reports on when the actual decline began.
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