Preventing teen pregnancy—and abortion—is one of those perennial hot-button issues in the news. However, according to Pew Research Center analysis of new data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics branch of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC , "the teen birth rate in the United States is at a record low, dropping below 18 births per 1, girls and women ages 15 to 19 for the first time since the government began regularly collecting data on this group. The Guttmacher Institute , a recognized leader on matters relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights has been collecting, collating, analyzing, and disseminating high-quality research on these subjects since According to the report, In , , women younger than 20 became pregnant in the United States. Of those pregnancies, , were among teens between the ages of 15 and 19; 7, were among those aged 14 and younger. Additional findings from the report follow below.


10 Things You Didn't Know About Pregnant Teenagers in America



About Teen Pregnancy | CDC
Teenage pregnancy in the United States refers to females under the age of 20 who become pregnant. In , , babies were born to women aged 15 — 19 years old. This is a birth rate of Pregnancies are much less common among girls younger than In , 6. Teen pregnancy is defined as pregnancies in women under the age of 20, regardless of marital status. Teenage birth rates , as opposed to pregnancies, peaked in , when there were


U.S. Teen Pregnancy and Abortion Rates
Industrialized and developing countries have distinctly different rates of teenage pregnancy. In developed regions, such as United States , Canada , Western Europe , Australia , and New Zealand , teen parents tend to be unmarried , and adolescent pregnancy is seen as a social issue. By contrast, teenage parents in developing regions such as Africa , Asia , Eastern Europe , Latin America , and the Pacific Islands are often married, and their pregnancy may be welcomed by family and society. However, in these societies, early pregnancy may combine with malnutrition and poor health care to cause long-term medical problems for both the mother and child. A report by Save the Children found that, annually, 13 million children are born to women under age 20 worldwide.



Get involved in our campaigns and help ensure young people's health and rights. Also available in [ PDF ] format. Largely due to increased contraceptive use, teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined since their peak in