Teen Birth Rate Hits Historic Lows

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In 1990, 61% of pregnancies INITIATED, ended in live births and 24% ended in abortion.
In 2008, 65% of pregnancies INITIATED, ended in live births and 18% ended in abortion. (..from Stephanie J. Ventura, demographer ..health statistics center)
For those of you in the so called pro life crowd, this DOES NOT MEAN the abortion rate went DOWN!!!! There were less pregnancies to start with in 2008 so any percentage in 2008 would be less than the same percentage in 1990--the number of pregnancies INITIATED in 2008 was less than in 1990.
The supposedly, pro life people have trouble with PROPORTION (concept of) for they view a 2 celled zygote having the same rights and functions as a grown man or woman. Even though a zygote is a very tiny proportion of a newborn infant or an adult. The proportion part escapes them or their mind is not capable of reasoning with proportion particularly in morals. They want to leave out the Rate part of abortions and deal only with the absolute numbers of abortions. ...so they can claim victory by saying most American are against it...
They have their counterpart in the Tax Rate. There are many pro life people who say a 1% tax on a billionaire and a 50% tax on a working man is morally fair,
because the billionaire pays out more cash in absolute numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UGH! Take away half of what a working man/professional makes and that's fine with them. Let them struggle along on half a salary, while the billionaire still has hundreds of millions or billions to live on....
The pro life group would like nothing better than to have every pregnant adolescent to carry the pregnancy to tern, raped, incest or not, just so she can be punished for having sex out of marriage. Then be saddled with bills, misery, for the next 20+ years rearing it

docarbor of AK 7:41PM October 02, 2012

Here's another correlation for you anti-abortionites, when the economy goes down as it did after 2006 the pregnancy rate goes down across all economic groups. So naturally the abortion rate would go down also.
If the economy gets bad enough, the abortion rate will climb higher,... rather than go down.

spirulinomike of KS 6:43PM October 02, 2012

As proven many, many times before, sex education and contraception works.
Thank you Obama and go suck yourself W!

toothless of WV 4:10PM April 11, 2012

More then likely as a result of products like BPA and similar used on bottling, canning and ingredients on food products teens and adults use.
BPA has a devastating effect on male reproductivity as well as endocrine system in infants and women.
This of course by no means is an oversight by food processing companies.
Those who've harbored the view that reproduction must be regulated are behind this with world organizations promoting water and food additives the limit fertility in humans.

Clem Kadidlehopper of WA 5:49PM April 10, 2012

Try typing "abortion rates in the US" (no quotes) into google and guttmacher.org is the first result. (never heard of them myself until mentioned below)
Try typing "abortion rates in the US site:.gov" (no quotes) and the US Census Bureau is the top result. That page shows information going back to 1990 and it does appear to me that abortion is going down (good news).
I don't like abortion; don't want to encourage abortions. I don't like the government to tell me what to do about my body either. I would, however, appreciate it if the government could help me be healthier. This includes helping my newborn daughter be healthy.
Why we know that newborns in the US are born with man-made toxins and chemicals in them and we don't do anything about it? Why don't we know what chemicals are toxic to humans? Why haven't we as a people analyzed this to protect ourselves? This boggles my mind. If we want either a better life for us, for our grandchildren, or an intelligent military to protect us I think finding some common agreement would be a good thing.

Frank of DC 2:30PM April 10, 2012

Mary, abortion rates aren't available yet, but they have been declining. In 2008, there were 17 abortions per 1,000 teens, in 1988, there were 43.5
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2012/02/08/index.html

Jason Koebler of DC 1:07PM April 10, 2012

I'm curious to know how the trend for teenage pregnancy rate looks (as compared to total teenage births).
I'd also like to know how the abortion rate for teenagers looks (I assume it's going up).
Is the decline in births due in part to a rise in abortion rates? or are they unrelated?
Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Mary Anderson of AL 12:42PM April 10, 2012

This is welcome data, though teen births among our fastest-growing subpopulation--Mexican-Americans--is still awful. Black & Hispanic teens have babies because then they get rich benefits: Preschool daycare, public schooling, hot breakfasts & lunches, welfare checks, food stamps, cheap public housing, medical benefits. It isn't that they can't do other jobs; it's that other jobs don't pay as WELL as being a freeloading single mom. Incidentally, it's annoying you cite as your sole "authority" on this data this woman from the partisan Guttman Institute. Of course all she's going to do is spout liberal bumper sticker slogans and draw bogus correlation=causation conclusions...she's a 'spokesman' and that's her JOB.

Doc Halister of PA 12:40PM April 10, 2012