Teen births lowest since 1940s? Good news

Editorial by Charlotte Observer, September 15, 2013.

The latest news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the U.S. teen birth rate is worth applauding. The rate has plummeted to the lowest point since the 1940s.

In a report released last week, the CDC found birth rates for teens between 15 and 19 dropped by 6 percent, with the number of births to teens down to a historic low of 305,420 – that’s the lowest since the end of World War II, and less than half the total in 1970, when the number of teen births reached its peak at 644,708. The decline was across all racial and ethnic categories.

The birth rate for 15-19 year-olds is now at 29.4 births per 1,000 girls. In the 1950s, the teen birth rate was three times as high, peaking at 96.3 per 1,000 in 1957.

Further, the CDC report showed that the birth rate for women in their early 20s has also been steadily declining since 2007, usually by 5 percent each year, and reached a record low of 83.1 births per 1,000 women in 2012.

So, what’s the catalyst? More access to contraception, experts say, as well as more education. Some also cite the recession.

Less of a factor, many say, is teens having less sex or more abortions. Both those rates for teens remain virtually unchanged over the last few years.

Unfortunately, the CDC study also found that in 2012, 40.7 percent – 2 in 5 – of all births were to unmarried mothers. That’s up from roughly 1 in 5 births in 1980. Unwed mothers are more likely to live in poverty. So that’s problematic.

Yet, only 17 percent of the single mothers last year were teens. That bodes well for the future if declines continue in that direction.