Good news: Fewer Alabama teens are getting pregnant

Teenage pregnancy is something all parents (and most children) want to avoid. No one wants to see their son or daughter on “16 and Pregnant.” But the good news is the rate of teen pregnancies in Alabama and the rest of the country have been decreasing significantly over the past few years.

Pregnancy rates for all women across the nation decreased in response to the 2008 recession, but pregnancy rates for women age 20 and older have started to tick back up while teenage pregnancy (ages 15-19) continues to decline. Teenage pregnancies have dropped continuously for the past two decades, and from 2004 to 2014 the birth rate among teens dropped 40%.

While Alabama’s teenage birth rate continues to decline, there is still a long way to go. The Yellowhammer State has the 10th highest teenage birth rate in the country, 32 births per every 1,000 teenage women in 2014, which is well above the national average of 24.2. New Hampshire has the lowest teenage birth rate with just 11 births per 1,000.

Locally, data from the U.S. Census shows that some Alabama cities are keeping teenage birthrates down better than others. 5.8% of all births statewide from 2010-2014 were born to teen mothers. The Census data split up the state by metropolitan area and shows an incredible range: from 2.0% in Enterprise to 19.0% in Valley.

Alabama does surpass the national average in one statistic: fewer pregnant teens are unwed in the state than in the rest of the country. 82% of pregnant teenagers are not married in Alabama, which is slightly better than the national average of 88%.

Race is another significant factor in teenage pregnancies, especially in Alabama. While teen pregnancies have dropped significantly for all races across the nation, minority teens are still more likely to become pregnant. In Alabama, the pregnancy rate for black teenagers is dropping twice as fast as the rate for white teens. In 2008, 51% of pregnancies for every 1,000 black women were to teens. That number had dropped to 29.4% in 2013, a decrease of 21.6%. In the same time period, the rates for white women dropped from 32.4% to 21.3%, decreasing 11.1%.

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control suggest that the reasons for the decline in teenage pregnancies include fewer teens having sex and an increase in contraceptive use. Over the past 25 years, the number of teenagers having sex has dropped 14% for girls and 22% for boys. Of those that are having sex, 79% of females and 84% of males use some form of contraceptive, usually condoms. The study also found that girls who did not use some kind of contraception were twice as likely to become teen mothers.

Hopefully this trend will continue in Alabama as teens recognize the risks and dangers of pregnancy, the importance of contraceptives, and the long-term implications of having children.