For decades, pregnancy rates in US women have been sliding, and this is largely thanks to a steep decline in teen pregnancies, according to a new report.
The study showed that teenage pregnancies reached a historic low in 2009. For all US women between 15 and 44 years of age, the pregnancy rate in 2009 was 102.1 per 1,000 women, down 12% since 1990. The only time it has been lower was in 1997, and even then, the difference was slight. The birth rate for married women is 72% higher than for unmarried women; the abortion rate is five times higher for unmarried women than for married women, and has also dropped overall.
For women across all categories, unintended pregnancy accounts for almost all abortions, so the decline in abortion rates is closely correlated with the decline in unintended pregnancies, and this has been seen in all groups including married women. Increasing options and education are clearly beneficial for all women.
Pregnancy rates are down in every category except women over 30, the only group with a continually increasing incidence of pregnancy. Women in their 20s represent the largest group of pregnant women, but even their rates have dropped.
The data stopped at 2009 because the complete set of more recent data is not available yet, but newer statistics do suggest that pregnancy rates continue to decline, although at a slower pace than the dramatic drop from 1990 to 2009.
The recession that began in 2007 probably has had an impact. Birth rates plummeted during the Great Depression of the 1930s; a similar effect is probably taking place now. In addition, women have been having fewer children than their mothers and grandmothers, and more women are waiting until their 30s to start their families, waiting for either the economy or their personal financial situations to stabilize.
While the levelling-off of the decline in most categories may be a sign of the recession’s abating impact, the teen birth rate shows no signs of slowing its striking drop. In 2012, the teen birth rate was less than half its 1992 peak of 62 birth per 1,000 girls, making this the group with the largest decline. The data show that fewer teenagers are having sex as well as a significant increase in contraceptive use among the ones that do. The exact reasons for the decline may not be clear, but those teaching both abstinence and sexual health, including contraceptive use, are probably on the right track.
Even with the decline, the pregnancy rate in the United States is still among the highest in the industrialized countries. The countries with the ten highest birth rates worldwide are all located in Africa.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, M. D., M. P. H