The U.S. teen birth rate in 2009 fell to its lowest point in almost 70 years of record-keeping ”” a decline that stunned experts who believe it’s partly due to the recession.
The birth rate for teenagers fell to 39 births per 1,000 girls, ages 15 through 19, according to a government report released Tuesday. It was a 6 percent decline from the previous year, and the lowest since health officials started tracking the rate in 1940.
Experts say the recent recession ”” from December 2007 to June 2009 ”” was a major factor driving down births overall, and there’s good reason to think it affected would-be teen mothers.
And the number of abortions among teens is . . .
In 2006, it was 19.3 per 1,000 women for teenagers, a 56% decline since 1988. According to the Guttmacher Institute.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf