Good News ALL states reduced their teen birth rates from 1990 to 1999

Table Highlights

·        Good News in Teen Pregnancy means lowest numbers in Rank Order and Rate.

·        Good News in % change means highest numbers but good news in Rank Order in the % of Change are the lowest numbers.

·        Colored state names show states doing better than national average in reducing their rates or percent of change.

·        Highlight means lost ground in rank order. (These states lost ground in rank order, IA, KA, MN, NE, ND, UT, WI, were below national average in reduction but were already low in teen pregnancy rates which means that they had less room for improvement. These state’s policies bear watching, are they staying the course of what worked for them in the past or are they doing something new that is raising their overall rates.)

·        States with both highest and lowest ranking are bolded. (Note DC is highest but is not a state.)

·        Hot Spot means Highlight means the state lost ground, made less than national average reduction or % of change and were ranked above national average in 1999. These are the hot spot states. Some states lost ground but were well below national average in rates so had very little positive movement available. (Mississippi and Alabama remained the same rank and only performed slightly less than national average but is a hot spot because they remain the highest ranked states for teen pregnancies. District of Columbia is going in the right direction but still has by far the highest rates of teen pregnancy but not the highest rate of reduction.)

Good Questions

1.  The real question is what were the out of wedlock rates? Many of the highest ranked states are rural populations, which marry early. A similar chart measuring out of wedlock rates or teens under age 18 would be a better indicator of educational program effects. Outcomes for out of wedlock pregnancies are very different than for married teens aged 18-20. One staggering factor not accounted for is culture or the country of origin of those most likely to conceive out of wedlock?

2.  Does this chart take into consideration the sheer numbers represented? For example the number of teens that need to change behavior in TX or AL versus VT to make a statistically and rank order change would be different. Therefore, the amount of services and strategies may vary, have those been provided? Good news is that states achieving changes which reach close to the national average but had very high rates of pregnancy (AL, AR, DC, SC, NC, even MS and LA) shows a tremendously positive shift. These are all states who have had major legal policy shifts or community activity changes toward abstinence education. States with heavily populated urban areas that achieved good rates of change even though each had fairly high rates of pregnancy in 1990 like IL, OH, MO have also achieved state support and funding for abstinence programming.

3.  Some states had very high rates of teen pregnancy and have made considerable improvement. What educational trend (MI, FL) changed over the course of those ten years? Were Title V abstinence funds uses as directed funds? Did a major shift in TANF benefits or statutory rape prosecutions cause a shift in some states for underage clients?

4.  What has been changed in each state regarding reporting, birth and abortion rates?

5.  How many births were to new immigrants or non-US citizens? This is important when assessing TX, AZ, NM and even CA numbers

6.  Does this reduction in live births reflect sexual activity? The question is whether fewer teens are contracting an STD for example NJ has high HIV rates but low live birth rates. Are the costs for family planning and STD treatment going up in the states with these declines or are they increasing abstinence education budgets, efforts and laws? Which of these states increased the ratio of their family planning budget to the ratio of their abstinence education to provide shots and devices versus interpersonal relationship skills?

Data came from http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/auxiliary_2002/table1_5.htm

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