Teen Pregnancy: Mississippi Has Highest Teen Birth Rate In The U.S.

ATLANTA, April 10 (Reuters) - Mississippi has the highest teen birthrate in the nation while New Hampshire has the lowest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, following up on a report that found the incidence of pregnancy among U.S. teens was falling.

Mississippi reported 55 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2010, more than 60 percent above the U.S. average, according to state data released on Tuesday. New Hampshire's rate was less half the national average at 15.7 births for the same age group.

Teen birth rates were higher in the South and Southwest and lower in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the CDC said, noting that Hispanics and blacks had the highest teen birth rates.

Last fall the CDC reported that the U.S. teen birth rate dropped 9 percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching a historic low of 34.3 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19. It attributed the drop to several factors, including strong pregnancy-prevention messages aimed at teens and increased use of contraception.

From 2007 to 2010, the rates fell at least 8 percent in 47 states and the District of Columbia. In 16 states, declines ranged from 20 percent to 29 percent. Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia were the only states showing little decline.

"In spite of these declines, the U.S. teen birth rate remains one of the highest among other industrialized countries," the CDC said. (Reporting By David Beasley; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Comments

[timmask]

11:14 AM on 04/18/2012

Mississippi is about to tackle this issue with a comprehensive program. If we use science-based, proven approach, we'll make great strides. From someone who's worked in cause-related initiatives before, here's my take on an important part of this effort being successful:
http://mwb.com/2012/04/teen-pregnancy-media-campaign-will-be-critical-component/

[MeRy71]

06:38 PM on 04/15/2012

America, both low numbers for teen births as for abortions are possible, check http://www.mery.nl/TeenBirthsAbortions.PDF

I've translated the piece about a delegation of British teenmoms who came to visit the Netherlands last week to learn about our ways of teaching the youngsters + added 2009 abortion numbers of the CBS.

Dutch Teen Births: 5.3 per 1,000, Abortions: 7 per 1,000

[Laura Densmore]

12:06 AM on 04/12/2012

Well, the state government there most likely has this idea that if a teen is pregnant, it's her fault. The father gets little to no blame, and the government's not going to blame itself for its medieval abstinence-only education.

[tlcpro]

10:03 AM on 04/13/2012

Got that right. If that doesn't prove that abstinence only education doesn't work, I don't know what does. If sex education were taken seriously, teen pregnancy rates would continue to drop everywhere.

[makingsenseofitall]

08:52 PM on 04/11/2012

It doesn't mention the fact that the teens are getting pregnant by their Fathers, Brothers, and of course first cousins. Thank you I'll be here all week.

[badgerwoman]

08:27 PM on 04/11/2012

How's that teaching "abstinence" sex education working out for ya, Mississippi? Apparently not so good.

[gulliver314]

04:18 PM on 04/11/2012

Want to reduce teen pregnancy? Require any pregnant girl, or grown woman for that matter, to identify the father, if she wants to claim any government funds. Then require that boy or man to be responsible financially for his offspring until the child reaches 18. The payments will go to the government and be distributed to the mother, so no contact is required between the new parents. Easiest method is to garnish the wages of the males, just like tax withholding.

[tlcpro]

10:04 AM on 04/13/2012

They already do that.

[opsudrania]

02:23 PM on 04/11/2012

Best bet is Yoga therapy training in Ashtanga Yoga practices. Too much of materialism devoid of the spiritual education leads to such erratic social misdeamenors.

[Fastlan3]

03:37 PM on 04/11/2012

Whatever...

[Profwanda]

07:45 AM on 04/11/2012

Mississippi and Arizona - prime examples of what we can all be proud of.

[canto1951]

06:08 AM on 04/11/2012

I'd be willing to bet that the highest teen pregnancy rates are in states with the most aggressively abstinence-only sex-ed policies!

[eLucida]

11:27 AM on 04/12/2012

Mississippi is the most religious state in the US; NH the least.
I'm sure that is just a coincidence.

[lifelongdemo]

05:55 AM on 04/11/2012

Wow, another red states vs. blue states. Abstinence only vs. birth control. Birth control should be available to all high school kids. No amount of bible thumping is going to stop teens from experimenting. This is so preventable. But those small brain cons refuse to face it. Teach your children about birth control. Oh wait, they don't believe in education either.

[tlcpro]

10:06 AM on 04/13/2012

That is a problem, eh? No education whatsoever for these kids. Funny how those who would abolish public education have benefited from it themselves. These jokers went to college.

[ILXas]

05:04 AM on 04/11/2012

Sexually mature teenagers are also sexual beings who have needs. You can't keep treating them like children and expect them to develop responsibility. Nor should they be treated as such or else they WILL rebel in defiance. It should come as no surprise that those who are difficult and troublesome as teenagers can end up having good relations with their parents once upon reaching adulthood. Does turning a certain age magically makes them change their demeanor? Nay, it's because when they turn 18, society magically stops treating them like children with unstable hormones.

Solution:
A. Lower minimum age for marriage. They're going to be having sex regardless, better give them a legal outlet than treat it as a shameful thing that needs to be hidden and practiced secretly.
B. Lower barriers for marriage and make the ability to claim for divorce easy and the laws fair for both parties so that neither the guy nor the gal get screwed in the process. If divorce laws are harsh to either party, one of them is going to be very reluctant to make a commitment knowing that having sex outside of marriage has the same benefits but is a lot less risky for their financial futures than being married.

[FiredUpRTG]

01:30 PM on 04/11/2012

Solution: higher expectations of self-control and keep them too preoccupied to have time to do it.

[ILXas]

04:30 PM on 04/11/2012

Oh yeah, because abstinence-only self control has worked so well in the past right?

They're people, not slaves. If you keep them preoccupied the entire time, they will not be able to reflect upon life and grow intellectually. They will just become automatons existing for the purpose of existing. And unless you have your eyes on them all the time, they will go and engage in "extracurricular" activities on their own. Just look at the number of teenagers who have snuck out past curfew or gone to a party under false pretenses.

Even if you repress them until they turn 18, once they move out they are a lot more likely to make stupid decisions while exploring their new-found freedom.

[tlcpro]

10:10 AM on 04/13/2012

Teens don't think that far in advance. Hormones rule. It is all about instant gratification. They get horny, they have sex. They don't think about marriage and that stuff, they're still in high school. If you reduce the age of marriage, you'll have to reduce the voting age and the drinking age too.

[ILXas]

11:40 AM on 04/13/2012

On the contrary, I feel they think further in advance than you give them credit for. The fact that having sex "legally" is at least 5 years into their future factors in to it. Girls and guys are built differently. Generally, guys go nuts if they can't find an outlet and gals primarily need the security and emotional fulfillment that a relationship offers. And vice versa to some degree. Putting them in close contact to each other is like putting a starving person at a free buffet and expecting him to practice self-control. Telling a starving person that if you eat now, it's instant gratification is cruel and foolish. Eating at that point has instant benefits AND long term benefits.

Same with sex and marriage. Hormones rule at this age precisely BECAUSE they're supposed to be having sex. Horniness is your body signaling a biological need. Can you curb it through certain means. Perhaps, but it's not necessarily the best thing for you.

With respect to drinking, drinking at any age is not a good thing. The net aggregate damage caused by alcohol to individuals and society is far worse than that of tobacco and even illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin and ecstacy. Yet we consume alcohol freely as part of our culture?
-http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/01/us-drugs-alcohol-idUSTRE6A000O20101101

[ILXas]

11:40 AM on 04/13/2012

With respect to voting, we've treated them like children their entire life and so we are afraid that they will make stupid decisions at the ballot box. But realize, we put the likes of George W. Bush in office... TWICE! Teenagers should get involved in the political process at an earlier age, it will make them less apathetic to the fate of their country and more involved in the affairs of the world outside of theirs. We complain that teenagers are self-absorbed petty beings, but is it really a surprise when they don't have many other outlets open to them?

[ILXas]

05:01 AM on 04/11/2012

Teen pregnancies are not inherently bad for a society. It only becomes a problem when the mother is unmarried and the children grow up without their father. A family is the basic functioning unit of society. Have enough dysfunctional neurons, the brain will cease to function. Have enough dysfunctional families and society will crumble.

[K August]

05:58 AM on 04/11/2012

So instead of promoting sex education.......offering access to contraception.......the GOP is opposed to both of those and favor abstinence only education. When TX passed their abstinence education only laws........ teen pregnancy skyrocketed.

[tlcpro]

10:10 AM on 04/13/2012

Yep!

[FiredUpRTG]

01:30 PM on 04/11/2012

A parent should be smarter than the child, not learning the same things at the same time as the kid.

[ILXas]

04:23 PM on 04/11/2012

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
- Albert Einstein

Learning is a lifelong process. Teenagers were not born yesterday. They've lived for over a decade and have been exposed to the outside world from the second they were born. If they haven't learned enough to venture out in the world and experience life by then, the entities responsible for their education (physical, intellectual, practical, sexual, etc.) have horribly neglected their duties.

Treat them like adults and they will behave like adults. Absolve them of this right and they will behave foolishly and "experiment" with things they could have otherwise learnt in a safe and comfortable environment.

Ask any worker or any parent and they will tell you that they learnt more on the job through experience than they ever could have through a book.

[Carla van der Meer]

01:04 AM on 04/11/2012

This is exactly the kind of nonsense that will happen in more states, as they move towards abstinence only sex education and at the same time make birth control and abortion harder to access. Having a child at 14 is no life for the girl, or her child.

[Bladesmith]

01:03 AM on 04/11/2012

How's that abstinance and aspirin working for ya, GOP states?

[Ryvle]

12:51 AM on 04/11/2012

What are the rates of single mother households in each of these states? I'm going to go out on a limb and say there's a correlation.