U.S. teen pregnancy rates at an all-time low across all ethnicities

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(CBS News) The rate of teenagers becoming mothers is declining rapidly, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control  and Prevention (CDC). The average teen birth rate decreased 9 percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching an all time low of 34.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19.

That's a 44 percent drop from 1991 to 2010. There were less teenage mothers in 2010 than any year since 1946.

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The effect is being seen across most groups. Hispanic teens, who normally have a higher birth rate than the rest of the population, reported less young birth mothers than ever before in 2010. While there are still 55.7 teen births in the Hispanic community for every 1,000 births, numbers declined 12 percent for Hispanic and American Indian or Alaskan Native teens. Rates dropped 13 percent for Asian and Pacific Islander mothers. Non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black teenage mother saw their rates drop of 9 percent.

What's behind the reduced rates? The CDC claims that the effective use at prevention messages has helped stop teenage pregnancy. Both increased use of contraception and use of two methods of birth control (usually birth control polls and condoms) at once have been observed.

While teen pregnancy has been on the decline, it still costs an estimated $10.9 billion annually and carries an elevated risk both for the young mothers and babies. According to the CDC, there are nine times as many teen mothers in America than in other developed countries.

That's not the only bad news. A CDC study showed that only 50 percent of teen moms will get a high school diploma by the age of 22, HealthPop reported.

And, while 47 states saw a decline, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia saw no discernible difference in rates. States in the South and Southwest still have rates high above the national average. A full list of state rates for teen pregnancy can be found here.

"We are in a woeful shape," television's Dr. Drew Pinsky told HealthPop in a previous article about teen pregnancy. "The strange thing about the entirety of the sexual revolution is that no one even thought this sexual revolution thing hoisted by adults was raining down on teenagers and young adults. It's had dire, dire consequences."

 The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy's has more on teen pregnancy.

[tenniss]

KPeters, do those numbers include chemical abortions as well or only surgical abortions? Most people I know have chemical abortions now instead of surgical, which might explain the appearance of an abortion decline.

[mevnu]

America, both low numbers for teen births as for abortions are possible, check http://www.mery.nl/TeenBirthsAbortions.PDF

I've translated the piece about a delegation of British teenmoms who came to visit the Netherlands last week to learn about our ways of teaching the youngsters + added 2009 abortion numbers of the CBS.

Teen births: 5.3 per 1,000, abortions: 7 per 1,000

[Annelisefrench72]

and your link to the Guttmacher graph with the comment that shows abortion rates declining is misleading. abortion rate WAS declining but the graph shows a rise in abortions from 2005 to 2008 and even though it was published in 2011, there is no data for 2008-2011.

[Annelisefrench72]

@ K peters from UK:
nice try, clipping a quote from an article whose headline is: Teen Pregnancy and Abortion on the Rise. how is it possible that they would be writing an article concerning the rise when it's not rising, according your quote? because the upswing occured after 2006, which you don't include in your quote. speedy is right.

[farmerbb]

The huge issue missing from this report is the comparison in rates between states that teach abstinence, versus sex education.

[cjohnson52111]

I could not agree with you more. I'm actually writing a paper for my college class urging states (regardless of religious values) to at the very least arm the adolescents and teens with the knowledge! TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN (students) ABOUT SEX! Comprehensive sex education programs don't increase the frequency of sex, they increase the consistency to which contraception is used.

[speedyclick]

It's not the teen PREGNANCY rate that's the lowest on record but the teen BIRTH rate, an entirely different thing. About half of pregnant teens abort, so the pregnancy rate is considerably higher than the birth rate.

And on a grammatical note: the word you want is "fewer," not "less" when referring to the number of teens giving birth!

[KPeters_from_UK]

You are wrong Speedy,

The quote below was written in Jan. 2010.
"When it comes to abortion, the trend line has been heading downward among whites and Hispanic teens. In 1990, 43.9% of pregnant white teens terminated their pregnancies, according to the Guttmacher report. In 2006, 29.3% did. Among Hispanics, the rate dropped from 28.1% to 22.9% in the same period. But among black teens, the rate has not moved much in 15 years — holding steady at about 41%."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1956645,00.html#ixzz1reoHUhXu

And if you want to see a nifty graph that shows abortion rates declining in the States since 1981 check out: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html