U.S. Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low But African American Rates Still Highest

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over the last 20 years, teen births have dropped 37 percent in the U.S. and are now at a record low. Dr. Wanda Barfield, director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s division of reproductive health, said that teens may still not be getting the sex education they need to protect themselves at a press conference yesterday.

Even with this copacetic and major decline, three in 10 teenage girls get pregnant making our rates in the U.S. far higher when compared to other commensurable nations.

The report is based on 2009 data on those aged 15 to 19. The study also pointed out that about 46 percent of teens say they’ve had sexual intercourse, with about 14 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys saying they do not use any type of birth control.

Of special note was that black and Hispanic teens are about 2.3 times more likely to have a baby than white teens. Specifically, 58 percent of African American teen girls reported having had sex, compared to 45 percent of Hispanic girls and 45  percent of white girls. Seventy-two percent of teenage African American males reported they have had sex, compared with 53 percent of Hispanic boys and 40 percent of white boys.

With approximately half of teenage mothers not completing high school and girls of teen mothers being three times more likely to become teen mothers themselves, this issue continues to be of critical concern in African American communities. –torrance stephens, ph.d.

Torrance Stephens authors the blog rawdawgb.blogspot.com. Find him on twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo.