Posted on 08/25/2014 8:04:44 PM PDT by right-wing agnostic
The staff of TeenWise, a Minneapolis-based non-profit, crunched the numbers for its annual report on Minnesota teenagers' sexual health. Their calculations seemed to show something unbelievable: the state's teen birth rate had a double-digit decline between 2009 and 2010.
That seemed impossible. Just three years earlier, in 2007, Minnesota's teen birth rate had increased by 1.4 percent; nationally it had increased by 3 percent in 2006. How could the rate then fall so steeply and so quickly?
"We ran the data, and we figured it was a mistake," said Judith Kahn, TeenWise's executive director. "Then, it looked like everybody had a mistake. We talked to others around the country, and they were all seeing a very similar thing."
TeenWise's calculations turned out to be accurate. Minnesota's teen birth rate fell by 10.5 percent in 2010. That same year, the national teen birth rate fell by 9.2 percent. That was one of the fastest annual declines on record until 2013, when the rate declined another 10 percent.
For five years now, America's teen birth rate has plummeted at an unprecedented rate, falling faster and faster. Between 2007 and 2013, the number of babies born to teens annually fell by 38.4 percent, according to research firm Demographic Intelligence. This drop occurred in tandem with steep declines in the abortion rate. That suggests that the drop isn't the product of more teenagers terminating pregnancies. More simply, fewer girls are getting pregnant.
"My jaw dropped," said Laura Lindberg, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, of seeing the 2013 data, which the federal government published in June. "It feels like we're on this roller coaster with the momentum driving us down, and the slope just keeps getting faster and faster."
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Too many girls know older girls who’ve been pregnant teens and don’t want to raise their kids that way.
Well, once again illegals immigrants are coming here to do the effort Americans won't do.
Curious when will the studies take in account the coming anchor babies explosion. Recession, IUD, sex ed, abortions will not sway the incoming 'givmedats'. No incentive to not have a child, the gov pay(private sector)pays for all.
Awaiting the results of an updated study a year from now.
I bet some of it is due to the fact that the economy is just so bad that there is always at least one parent home at any given time.
My guess is, it is actually getting through to kids that having children as children just destroys your life. With social media there is pressure being put on kids as never before.
The economy is so bad you can no longer cruise through it. Nobody wants to be a loser, and when you are the unmarried teen at home with a kid and no money in this horrid economy, and everyone knows it though facebook, you are the loser.
” What am I missing, here?”
You didn’t read the article - abortion rates are also falling
I would say that a poor economy means that teens are realizing how expensive kids can be. Plus the teens are staying home with mom and dad till they are much older and hopefully wiser.
Why would falling teens be giving birth? I’m missing a step here.
A disturbing possibility is that this represents an unintentional decline in the fertility rate , not the result of different lifestyle choices or contraceptive use. Unintentional infertility is rising in the demographic where having a child is viewed as a positive age-appropriate decision. Perhaps that is a factor in this younger demographic as well.
Abortion rates are down as well. There are just fewer teens getting pregnant.
Girls are popping Plan B One Step like Skittles. Taste the Rainbow.
I’ve heard arguments that the 16 and Pregnant shows revealing how hard it is really to be a teen parent have had an impact. And that the word about injectable contraceptives is going mainstream - forget about forgetting a birth control pill, just get a shot every three months.
Easy access to Plan B = no ‘recordable’ abortions. I pick up a LOT of prescriptions for my elderly Dad and ‘Plan B’ is RIGHT THERE at the counter.
Pick it up and go. Under $50 to off your kid.
Great article but they missed one thing.The abortion rate in this age group.Having a baby is out of style and the girls like having dogs.
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