The trend in teen birth rates is continuing to decline along with teen pregnancy and abortion rates among teens.
According to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, the birth rate among all teens has dropped by 42 percent since its peak in 2007. Nonwhite and younger teens have led in declining birth rates in recent years, according to Pew Research, and the declines among Hispanic (50 percent), Asian or Pacific Islander (48 percent) and black (44 percent) teens have outpaced the national average while white teens are at 36 percent. Birth rates among younger teens ages 15–17 have fallen faster, dropping by 50 percent compared to a 39 percent decline among older teens ages 18 and 19, according to Pew.
A striking statistic for Alabama from a few years ago is that the southern state ranked No. 1 out of 51 states (including the District of Columbia) on 2011 birth rates among teens ages 15–19, according to the Office of Adolescent Health of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Ranked No. 1
Of the 333,746 teen births in the United States in 2011, Alabama was the home of 6,704 of those births. Of those births, 4,626 were from teens ages 18 or 19 and 95 were from teens under age 15.
New Mexico ranked the highest in teen birth rates in the nation in 2012 with 47.5 out of 1,000 teens giving birth, according to a 2015 Center for Disease Control (CDC) report. New Hampshire, in comparison, had the lowest teen birth rate in the nation in 2012 with 13.8 teens out of 1,000 giving birth.
The most recent data from the National Survey of Family Growth shows a significant decline in the percentage of never-married teens that report they have ever had sex, from 51 percent in 1988 to 44 percent in 2011–13. Of those who have had sex, 79 percent of girls and 84 percent of boys report using a contraceptive method.
In Alabama, 58 percent of teens grades 9–12 in 2011 said they have had sexual intercourse. And 57 percent of students who were sexually active in grades 9–12 used a condom and 14 percent said they did not use any kind of contraceptive method.
When looking at a state’s sexual health, the CDC report found that Alabama has double the amount of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases as compared to the nation. In 2012, Montgomery County had four times the national average of these sexually transmitted diseases.
Looking at specific counties in 2014, Walker, Calhoun, Hale, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Clarke, Butler and Crenshaw counties had between a 50 and 99 percent higher teen pregnancy rate than the state rate of 22.6 percent, according to the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Also in Alabama, 3,356 of the total teen births in 2011 were from white teens; 2,817 were from black teens; 485 were from Hispanic teens; 25 were from American Indian or Alaska Natives teens; and 20 were from Asian or Pacific Islander teens.
Although the teen birth rate among blacks and Hispanics nationwide has fallen faster than whites, both Hispanic and black teens ages 15–19 had birth rates at least twice as high as the rate among white teens in 2014, Pew reported.
Causes for decline
The nationwide teen birth rate has seen a steep decline since the early 1990s with exception to a brief uptick in 2007.
Pew reported that the economy could be a possible force behind the trends. Birth rates for teens fell faster than they did for all females ages 15–44 from 2007 to 2014.
More effective use of contraception, less sex and more information about pregnancy prevention are other factors that affect birth rates, Pew said.
The CDC report found that teen birth rates in Alabama had decreased by 41 percent from 1990 to 2012.
When it comes to abortions, the nationwide rate for teens ages 15–19 has fallen from 43.5 percent per 1,000 teens in 1988 to 16.3 percent in 2009. In Alabama the abortion rate for pregnancies of teens ages 15–19 dropped 66 percent from 1988 to 2008.
Of the roughly 700,000 teen pregnancies in 2009 in the U.S., about 58 percent were live births, 25 percent ended in abortions and 17 percent were miscarriages or stillbirths, according to Pew.
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