Drop in teen pregnancies due to more contraceptives, not less sex
Teenage pregnancy is way down. And a study suggests that the reason is increased, and increasingly effective, use of contraceptives.
From 2007 to 2013, births to teenagers ages 15 to 19 dropped 36 percent; pregnancies fell by 25 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to federal data.
But that wasn’t because teens were shunning sex. The amount of sex being had by teenagers during that time period was largely unchanged, according to the study, which was published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. And it wasn’t because they were having more abortions. Abortion has been declining among all age groups, and particularly among teenagers.
Rather, the researchers from the Guttmacher Institute and Columbia University found that “improvement in contraceptive use” accounted for the entire reduced risk of pregnancy over the five-year period.
“By definition, if teens are having the same amount of sex but getting pregnant less often, it’s because of contraception,” said Laura Lindberg, the study’s lead author and a Guttmacher researcher.
No single contraceptive method stood out as singularly effective, said the researchers.
Instead, they found that teens were using contraceptives more often, combining methods more often, and using more effective methods, such as the birth control pill, IUDs and implants.
Also, the use of any contraceptive at all makes a big difference, said Lindberg. “If a teen uses no method, they have an 85 percent chance of getting pregnant (within a year). Using anything is way more effective than that 85 percent risk.”
California teen birth rates have declined to record-low levels, and while the central San Joaquin Valley continues to have higher rates, Merced County is trending lower than many other Valley counties.
In a report released last month, state officials cited programs aimed at preventing pregnancy and no-cost family services for a low teen birth rate of 20.8 per 1,000 teen girls in 2014.
Valley teen rates remain stubbornly high: 39.1 per 1,000 in Fresno; 38.9 in Kings County; 43 in Madera County; 43.7 in Tulare; and 45.1 in Kern County.
Merced County’s rate came in at 36.2 per 1,000 girls for ages 15 to 19. In Stanislaus County, the rate was 30.2.
“It’s an access-to-care issue, hands down,” said Emily Bernard, director of Before and After Baby in Merced. “We are a very poor county, economically speaking, and we don’t have enough providers, whether it be for birth control or birth.”
The Merced Sun-Star and the Fresno Bee contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 5, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Drop in teen pregnancies due to more contraceptives, not less sex."