Teen births have plummeted 51 percent over the past decade

[homersapien 11,370]

The data shows a massive, little-noticed public health victory.

Updated by Sarah Kliffsarah@vox.com  Sep 27, 2017, 11:10am EDT

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/27/16373668/teen-births-declining

 

America’s teen birth rate has fallen by half over the past decade, a stunning public health victory largely attributed to better use of contraceptives.

New federal data shows that the teen birth rate in the United States has declined from 41.5 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2007 to 20.3 births per 1,000 teenage girls this year.

The teen birth rate has plummeted over the past decade and declined 9 percent just in the past year.

Public researchers say it is rare to see a health trend like this shift so dramatically. It took four decades, for example, to cut adult smoking in half.

Separate research has attributed the decline in teen births to better use of birth control. A recent study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that teenage girls in 2012 were just as likely to be sexually active as girls in 2007. Survey research shows that 43 percent of girls between 15 and 19 said they’d ever had sex in 2007, compared with 45 percent in 2012.

What changed was how teenage girls used contraceptives. The percentage of sexually active teens who used at least one type of birth control the last time they had sex rose from 78 percent in 2007 to 86 percent in 2012. More teens gravitated toward better types of birth control — like pills, IUDs, or implants — rather than relying on lower-quality birth control like condoms.

 

[TitanTiger 20,479]

Forgive me if I take anything Guttmacher says with a mine full of salt.  They tend to only focus on the aspects they like to push, given their history as a part of Planned Parenthood.

 

Pew Research has more information:

Quote

The teen birth rate has been on a steep decline since the early 1990s, and that trend accelerated during the recession of 2007-09 and the years following, reversing a brief uptick that began in 2006. What’s behind the recent trends? One possible factor is the economy: A Pew Research Center analysis tied the declining birth rate to the flailing economy. And birth rates for teens fell faster than they did for all females ages 15-44 from 2007 to 2014 (42% and 9% declines, respectively).

What else is contributing to the decline in teen birth rates? Less sex, use of more effective contraception and more information about pregnancy prevention.

For one thing, there has been a significant decline in the percentage of never-married teenage females who report that they have ever had sex, from 51% in 1988 to 44% in 2011-13, according to National Survey of Family Growth data. Furthermore, among never-married teens who have had sex, 79% of girls and 84% of boys used a contraceptive method the first time they had sex.

While the overall share of teens using contraception at first sex has not changed significantly, the use of some forms of highly effective contraceptive methods is increasing. 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/29/why-is-the-teen-birth-rate-falling/

 

USA Today also mentioned that teens today are less sexually active to start with:

Quote

Teenagers today are having less sex and are using more contraception than kids three decades ago. 

Researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics, using new data of never-married teens released Thursday, found 42% of girls and 44% of boys between 15 and 19 years old had experienced vaginal intercourse.

Both rates have remained steady since about 2002, but are among the lowest levels in the nearly 30 years of national data on teen sex. In 1988, 51% of teenage girls and 60% of teenage boys had sex. 

The numbers match the dwindling rates of teenage pregnancy, which has dropped 64% since the early 1990s, reaching a record low in 2015...

...Although the reasons aren't clear, the CDC said evidence shows teen pregnancy's dip is because of abstinence and an increase in birth control use.Indeed, contraception use among teens has increased, if slightly, the study said.

...The most common answer for why teens abstained from sex was because it went against their religion or morals. The fact they "haven't found the right person yet" was the second-leading factor followed by not wanting a pregnancy.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/22/teens-having-less-sex-and-using-more-protection/419285001/

So the bigger picture is the economic downturn, teens being less sexually active, and contraception (either using it at all, or using better forms).

[homersapien 11,370]

What is it specifically about any association with Planned Parenthood that you find nefarious?   Do you  think they are "pushing" contraception and that's bad?

 

Here's the referenced Journal they cited as evidence for part of the decline:http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(16)30172-0/pdf

 

Personally, I am skeptical that an economic downturn would have that much effect on teenage pregnancies.  After all, we are talking teenagers.

But their may be a more focus emphasis on the consequences of a pregnancy on one's future - Lord knows that's something we have always emphasized in talking to young poeple - but it hardly takes a depressed economy to realize those consequences.

 

 

[TitanTiger 20,479]

1 minute ago, homersapien said:

What is it about any association with Planned Parenthood that you find nefarious? 

I think they tend to highlight/inflate the aspects that fit their policy agenda and ignore or downplay things that don't.  Such as the fall in the rate of teens having sex to begin with.  Or the impact of the economic downturn.

 

1 minute ago, homersapien said:

Here's the referenced Journal they cited as evidence for part of the decline:

http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(16)30172-0/pdf

 

I am skeptical that an economic downturn would have that much effect on teenage pregnancies.  After all, we are talking teenagers.

But their may be a more focus emphasis on the consequences of a pregnancy on one's future - Lord knows that's something we have always emphasized in talking to young poeple - but it hardly takes a depressed economy to realize those consequences.

But that is what the non-Guttmacher pushed research says.  It does give some credit to contraceptives, but shows there's much more to the picture than just that.

[homersapien 11,370]

At any rate, the decline is something that we should celebrate, no matter your feelings about a woman's right to choose an abortion. 

No one want's more abortions 

[homersapien 11,370]

Just now, TitanTiger said:

I think they tend to highlight/inflate the aspects that fit their policy agenda and ignore or downplay things that don't.  Such as the fall in the rate of teens having sex to begin with.  Or the impact of the economic downturn.

What "policy agenda"?

And why would abstinence be contrary to their policies? 

[TitanTiger 20,479]

2 minutes ago, homersapien said:

What "policy agenda"?

And why would abstinence be contrary to their policies? 

Because it's not part of the policy aims at all.  They routinely downplay abstinence initiatives as ineffective at best, delusional at worst.  Their policy agenda focuses on consequence-free sex.  So they push legalized abortion, contraceptives, sex education that treats abstinence before marriage as a footnote and so on.  They are what they are.

[Mims44 1,869]

1 hour ago, TitanTiger said:

Because it's not part of the policy aims at all.  They routinely downplay abstinence initiatives as ineffective at best, delusional at worst.  Their policy agenda focuses on consequence-free sex.  So they push legalized abortion, contraceptives, sex education that treats abstinence before marriage as a footnote and so on.  They are what they are.

That's true though TT. I hate to imagine all the drugs and armed guards that would have been needed to keep my teenage self abstinent.

 

BTW: "Teen births" is a weird way to word that in the topic title. It reads like people were giving birth to teens before, but not so much nowadays.

[homersapien 11,370]

21 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

Because it's not part of the policy aims at all.  They routinely downplay abstinence initiatives as ineffective at best, delusional at worst.  Their policy agenda focuses on consequence-free sex.  So they push legalized abortion, contraceptives, sex education that treats abstinence before marriage as a footnote and so on.  They are what they are.

BS.

They downplay "abstinence issues" only in the sense they shouldn't be substituted in lieu of providing free and available education and contraception, which makes a hell of a lot of sense.  They certainly aren't opposed to abstinence per se'. 

To suggest they promote an anti abstinence policy reflects the deliberate and calculated "evilization" of PP which is currently the vogue by those who have moral issues with contraception and/or abortion. Likewise, your comment about "consequence-free" sex. Frankly, that's so absurd as to be insulting.  Every thinking adult recognizes sex has consequences.  You really think PP is staffed by monsters?

[homersapien 11,370]

20 hours ago, Mims44 said:

That's true though TT. I hate to imagine all the drugs and armed guards that would have been needed to keep my teenage self abstinent.

You make the case regarding abstinence policies as a substitute for birth control.

[aujeff11 6,243]

18 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

They routinely downplay abstinence initiatives as ineffective at best, delusional at worst.

I mean, it kinda is. Don’t know how you were as a grasshopper ( who am I kidding, yes I do), but no amount of church kept my hormones down. I have two daughters now and I can imagaine I’ll be waging wars against kids just like the way I was. As for me, I’ll let the church and I do the abstinence talk, and let PP/ schools provide education and just hope and pray that all the teachings provide a solid foundation for her.

[DKW 86 7,419]

So, since it is teen births, is it just BIRTHS or is it pregnancies too?

Is the Pregnancy rate decreasing or just the Birth Rate?

[TitanTiger 20,479]

28 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

So, since it is teen births, is it just BIRTHS or is it pregnancies too?

Is the Pregnancy rate decreasing or just the Birth Rate?

These studies only measured the birth rate, though the factors mentioned such as teens waiting longer/having less sex, better use of contraception and so on would likely lend themselves to a lower pregnancy rate as well.

[aujeff11 6,243]

https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/births-to-unmarried-women/

The information without the lib bias from vox. Looking at the wide discrepancies, it appears proper education is highly critical. It’s no coincedence that Asians largely are better off than all other races in the U.S. Maybe cross reference SAT scores via this information. 

In 2013, 72 percent of all births to black women, 66 percent to American Indian or Alaskan native women, and 53 percent to Hispanic women occurred outside of marriage, compared with 29 percent for white women, and 17 percent for Asian or Pacific Islander women.”

[TitanTiger 20,479]

On 9/27/2017 at 6:10 PM, aujeff11 said:

I mean, it kinda is. Don’t know how you were as a grasshopper ( who am I kidding, yes I do), but no amount of church kept my hormones down. I have two daughters now and I can imagaine I’ll be waging wars against kids just like the way I was. As for me, I’ll let the church and I do the abstinence talk, and let PP/ schools provide education and just hope and pray that all the teachings provide a solid foundation for her.

I was raised in church but I didn't really get serious about my faith until I was in high school.  I certainly wanted to have sex before I became a Christian and there were a few opportunities that could have led to that but they didn't.  After that, even though I was still a normal red-blooded American male, my attitude changed.  I still had opportunities, particularly with one girl I dated for a few months, but now I didn't want to go there.  I understood the value of waiting and so I did.  I was a virgin when I got married 10 years later and to this day my wife is the only woman I've ever slept with.

The thing about "keeping one's hormones down" isn't that you don't acknowledge the existence of desire or that you demonize it as evil in and of itself.  It's that you teach kids they aren't just animals controlled by their passions.  Just as we would expect a kid to learn to exercise self-control in how they behave when they are upset or angry by not lashing out, saying hurtful things or being violent, we teach them to exercise self-control with their sexual desires as well.  We as a society need to actually recover this idea that self-control (not merely in terms of extreme cases like rape), even in the area of sexuality, is not just some high-minded ideal, but integral to being a fully realized, mature human being.  Stop treating sexual appetites like some separate class of desire of which we can't expect more from people.

[aujeff11 6,243]

On 9/30/2017 at 9:59 AM, TitanTiger said:

I was raised in church but I didn't really get serious about my faith until I was in high school.  I certainly wanted to have sex before I became a Christian and there were a few opportunities that could have led to that but they didn't.  After that, even though I was still a normal red-blooded American male, my attitude changed.  I still had opportunities, particularly with one girl I dated for a few months, but now I didn't want to go there.  I understood the value of waiting and so I did.  I was a virgin when I got married 10 years later and to this day my wife is the only woman I've ever slept with.

The thing about "keeping one's hormones down" isn't that you don't acknowledge the existence of desire or that you demonize it as evil in and of itself.  It's that you teach kids they aren't just animals controlled by their passions.  Just as we would expect a kid to learn to exercise self-control in how they behave when they are upset or angry by not lashing out, saying hurtful things or being violent, we teach them to exercise self-control with their sexual desires as well.  We as a society need to actually recover this idea that self-control (not merely in terms of extreme cases like rape), even in the area of sexuality, is not just some high-minded ideal, but integral to being a fully realized, mature human being.  Stop treating sexual appetites like some separate class of desire of which we can't expect more from people.

I agree with this but this isn’t going to happen and we can’t depend on it to stop unwanted pregnancies from happening either. Sex isn’t nearly as taboo anymore and secular society encourages it. Today, it’s about sleeping with the ones who make you feel twitterpated( Bambi lovers?). 

This day, if there is a college virgin, it’s almost like there is a negative connotation attached to him or her like “she must be a religious prude” or “what’s wrong with her.” So the people strongly devout in religion, may be able to resist, but he/she’s probably not bragging about the benefits to his/ her peers because he/she is afraid people will look at him or her differently.

The only possible way we could encourage abstinence is secular- greed or money. Money= quality of life. And most people do things in life that benefit them in some way throughout life, so it would be a wise choice for us to hone in on that. Show them how important it will be for their careers to stay abstinent when they’re young. Show them the stats on the high number of teenage mothers that find it hard to survive paycheck to paycheck. Encourage abstinence to keep the kids focused on school or their career. How many girls on the show “Teenage Mom” looked like they had everything going for them? (other than the girl that eventually made a sex tape- but again, sex isn’t taboo anymore.)

However, effective birth control is a problem to that goal. After my second child, my wife obtained a birth control procedure which put something in her arm that lasts for roughly three years. It’s too easy to care about your career and not sacrifice sex. It’s easier to give in. So, push comes to shove, I’ll talk to my daughters and I’ll let them know what I expect of them, but I’ll also tell them that I’d rather them be on the pill and do whatever they do safely if they decide not to follow my wishes. 

[Mims44 1,869]

On 9/30/2017 at 10:59 AM, TitanTiger said:

I was raised in church but I didn't really get serious about my faith until I was in high school.  I certainly wanted to have sex before I became a Christian and there were a few opportunities that could have led to that but they didn't.  After that, even though I was still a normal red-blooded American male, my attitude changed.  I still had opportunities, particularly with one girl I dated for a few months, but now I didn't want to go there.  I understood the value of waiting and so I did.  I was a virgin when I got married 10 years later and to this day my wife is the only woman I've ever slept with.

The thing about "keeping one's hormones down" isn't that you don't acknowledge the existence of desire or that you demonize it as evil in and of itself.  It's that you teach kids they aren't just animals controlled by their passions.  Just as we would expect a kid to learn to exercise self-control in how they behave when they are upset or angry by not lashing out, saying hurtful things or being violent, we teach them to exercise self-control with their sexual desires as well.  We as a society need to actually recover this idea that self-control (not merely in terms of extreme cases like rape), even in the area of sexuality, is not just some high-minded ideal, but integral to being a fully realized, mature human being.  Stop treating sexual appetites like some separate class of desire of which we can't expect more from people.

I don't know your age TT but even for me being in high school in the early 2000's.... it was rampant. And I don't see that as a negative. While girls in my HS were adamant about wanting sex, they were just as adamant about using protection. That was usually them being on the pill and me using a condom.

I don't and would never put down a Christian or anyone else that wants to be abstinent, but I don't see how being sexually active as a teen is in any way a negative. I had multiple sexual relationships in HS, and for the most part I am still on good terms with those women, hell with most I have a better relationship with their husbands. While it's not something you bring up during an Auburn game between hotwings, it's also not something that causes undue strife. Things aren't the same as they were in the early 1900's.

 

 

 

At the same time... as a father of two girls... I hope they stay abstinent till their early thirties at least.

 

 

[DKW 86 7,419]

7 hours ago, Mims44 said:

At the same time... as a father of two girls... I hope they stay abstinent till their early thirties at least.

And then reality rears its ugly head...