Teen Birth Rate Drops

A T L A N T A, Aug. 9, 2000 -- Teenagers are having babies at the lowest rate

in at least 60 years, and everyone is taking credit—from

religious groups that push abstinence to advocates for

contraceptives and sex education in schools.

Analysts from several viewpoints agreed Tuesday on this much:Teens are more terrified than ever of sexually transmitteddiseases, and they are putting off starting families to take jobsin the booming economy.

For every 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19, there were 49.6 births lastyear—the lowest level since the statistic was first recorded sixdecades ago, the National Center for Health Statistics said.

The rate dropped consistently throughout the 1990s, falling 20percent for the decade.

‘More Conservative’

“Teenagers frankly are more conservative sexually,” said BillAlbert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent TeenPregnancy. “They realize that the risks in the 1990s were quite abit different than the risks their parents took in the ’60s and’70s.”

The drop was particularly sharp among girls ages 15 to 17, whoserate fell 6 percent from its level in 1998 to 28.7 births per1,000.

Births fell 2 percent among 18- to 19-year olds and 4 percentamong girls ages 10 to 14, said the statistics center, a divisionof the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

Clinton: Encouraging Trends

The teen birth rate fell across racial lines, most dramaticallyamong black teens, whose rate dropped 38 percent from 1991 to 1999.

“These encouraging trends cut across those younger and olderteens, married and unmarried teens, all states and all racial andethnic groups,” President Clinton said in a statement.

Clinton used the study as an opportunity to urge Congress toapprove $25 million for what are being called “second-chancehomes,” where teen parents can live and get job counseling andlearn parenting skills.

Analysts said HIV/AIDS became mainstream enough in the 1990s toscare teenagers, while awareness of other STDs was at an all-timehigh.

They said ad campaigns, community awareness groups and evenseeing friends have children encouraged teens to be more careful -or stop having sex altogether.

“In the past, abstinence was a joke,” said Bronwyn Mayden,executive director of Campaign for Our Children, which promotesabstinence. “It’s not a joke—it’s OK. Kids are really concernedabout catching STDs.”

Government demographers credited pro-abstinence organizationsalong with a swath of other groups—including churches, parentsand school sex-education programs.

“Young people more and more are telling us they want to hearfrom adults about sex,” said Tamara Kreinin, president of theSexuality Information and Education Council of the United States,which promotes sexuality as a natural part of living. “They wantto hear about values, about relationships, about love. It’s veryimportant for young people to have sexuality education.”

Peter Brandt, an issue response director for the Focus on theFamily ministry, said more abstinence is the obvious reason why thebirth rate has fallen. He said the notion that contraceptivesshould get credit comes from people who “play little tricks withthe data.”

Jobs Considered a Factor

Even the country’s record-breaking economy may have something todo with the falling teen birth rate. As more jobs with good paybecame available, some teens put off plans to have families.

The nation’s highest teen birth rate was in 1957, roughly 96births per 1,000. Analysts pointed out that in the 1940s and 1950s,when the statistics were first kept, people married younger.

The statistics center also reported a drop Tuesday in births tounmarried teens, a record number of women receiving prenatal careand a rise in births by Caesarean section.

Last month, the CDC reported that the teen-age pregnancy ratefell 8 percent from 1995 to 1997 and has declined every year since1991.

Even as they differed over why the teen birth rate has slowed,analysts said they hope teens would not tune out messages ofresponsibility. If the numbers continue to fall, they said, therecould be fewer children living in impoverished homes withunprepared parents.

“Whenever we see good news on these social-issue fronts, peoplehave the tendency to say, ‘We’ve solved this whole teen-birthproblem. Time to move on to bicycle helmets,“‘ Albert said.“There’s too many kids turning 13 next year for us to getcomplacent.”