July 18, 2014 – Teen Pregnancy

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Anchor lead:  Teenagers in the US are having fewer and fewer babies, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Teenagers are continuing to have fewer babies, the most recent federal census data reveal, with the rate of teen pregnancy at its lowest level ever in 2012.  That’s great news, says Amy Tsui, a family planning expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Tsui: We do know from the National Survey of Family Growth’s latest rounds that the proportion of young boys and young girls between the ages of 15 to 19 who are reporting sex has actually gone down over time so sexual activity has gone down and that’s probably behind why pregnancy rates are also going down. But there also has been a rise in the proportion of teens who report that their first sex was protected, that is they used a condom or some other protective method at the time.   :29

Tsui says the drop has occurred over all ethnic groups surveyed, and seems to suggest that a multifaceted approach to availability of contraception  and education is having a positive impact.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.