Teenage births have been a problem from quite a while in the United States. For a very long time, the number of teen births had been increasing steadily. Over the past few years however, there has been a steady decrease in the number of teenage mothers, and the CDC has now released information that will undoubtedly delight most parents out there. The current birth rate for teen mothers in the U.S. has reached the lowest point since the 40s; a major landmark achievement.

The decline over the past two decades

According to the CDC, there were 329,797 babies who were born in the previous year to mothers who were of the ages range of 15 and 19, and this number is the lowest since 1946, in that particular age group. This declined has not happened all at once. The birth rate among teenagers has reduced steadily over the past two decades. Since 1991, these numbers have fallen by 38%, which is a significant percentage. The news is not just restricted to females between 15 and 19. For women who are in their early 20s, the birthrate has also reduced. In fact, the number of births for women in this age group is currently at the lowest that has ever been recorded at 85.3 births for every 1000 women.

These figures are not a surprise to experts who have been monitoring the issue. The figures are in tandem with studies, which have been carried out in the past on teenage pregnancy. A report that was released February by the Guttmacher Institute revealed that the birth rate among teenagers had reached a low it hadn’t reached in decades.

Low abortion rates as well

Another issue that is likely to make quite a number of people happy is that as the birth rates have decreased, the number of abortions has also decreased a great deal. In 2008, out of every 1000 women the abortion rate was only 17.8 and this is a decrease of 59 percent from 1988. Both the decline in pregnancies and abortion rate has been attributed to more and better use of contraceptive techniques. This same statement was released by Planned Parenthood in relation to the figures that were released by the CDC.

Leslie Kantor, the V.P. of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America stated that the reason for the steady decline in teen births is as a result of more teenagers using contraception and also condoms. She went further to state that it is now possible to achieve better results by continuing with a system, they already know works. Some of the things that Kantor stated could help to further this progress was increasing the access to better sex education amongst teenagers and making the birth control methods that have been known to work over the past more accessible to teens. These include implants and IUDs. There has also been a reduction in births overall in the U.S. and this has been attributed to the slowing down of the economy.