Teen birth rate in U.S. still alarming

Society often blames young parents for problems that can follow a baby's arrival. But teen pregnancy is bigger than a pair of irresponsible teenagers.

It impacts your country and your money. It impacts the babies of teens.

Everyone should care about children having children, experts say.

The United States has some of the highest teen birth rates in the world. The country leads comparable industrialized countries such as Germany, Great Britain, Japan and France in teen birth and pregnancy rates, research compiled by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy shows. The nonprofit initiative started in 1996 with the goal of reducing teen pregnancy.

Teen pregnancy can stymie a healthy economy.

"As youth make the transition to adulthood they have the potential to make a real contribution to society but having an early childbirth can delay the process," said David Landry, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health research.

"In terms of retirees, the youth of today are the ones that are going to be supporting them by contributing to the Social Security system."

The United States has at least double the birth rate by teenagers before age 20 compared to Canada, France and Sweden, says a 2001 Guttmacher study. U.S. teens from low-income families are 79 percent more likely to have a child by 18 than teens of a similar lot in Britain, according to the study.

What's more, teen pregnancy digs into your wallet.

A late 1990s study, "Kids Having Kids," now being updated, says teen pregnancy costs taxpayers an estimated $7 billion a year in increased welfare and food stamp benefits, lost tax revenue, and foster care, health care and criminal justice costs.

Pat Paluzzi, president of the Healthy Teen Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., says the country needs more comprehensive sex education that speaks to children with parents who don't encourage them to think about their futures or tell them how not to get pregnant.

Communities should be concerned, she said.

"We can be really schizophrenic in this country about sex. Our view on teen parents could be described as, 'You made your bed, now lie in it'—obviously a blame-based response and one that doesn't serve any of us well," Paluzzi said. "The cycle of poverty that accompanies many teen parents and their children impacts the entire community."

Children of teen mothers often struggle in school, suffer from insufficient health care and are often born at lower birth weights, which can increase their chances of health problems or disabilities in the future, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

But there's good news. Nationally, teen birth rates have dropped about one-third from 1991 to 2004.

And there's bad news. Most recent federal numbers show rates are declining at a sluggish pace.

The birth rate to girls ages 15 to 19 dropped less than 1 percent from 2003 to 41.2 births per 1,000 females in 2004 and slightly increased for girls ages 10 to 14.

Girls in foster care have more than double the birth rates of their peers outside the system, research highlighted in "Fostering Hope," a 2005 study by National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and UCAN (Uhlich Children's Advantage Network) in Chicago shows. They see having a baby that will love them and never leave as a positive thing. They want a family of their own.

Child welfare providers often lack specific plans to prevent teen pregnancy among foster children even though they are often at greater risk of becoming young parents, the study says.

Nearly 60 percent of programs surveyed for teens in foster care reported no specific plan to prevent teen pregnancy, the 2005 study states.

What's more, statistics showing more teens having sex by 14 could compound teen pregnancy rates.

Nearly one in five children has had sex before their 15th birthday, according to "14 and Younger," a 2003 National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy study by seven teams of investigators mostly from universities and nonprofit groups.

About one in seven girls who have sex by age 14 reported getting pregnant, which the study says is not surprising given the low use of protection among children that young.

Photo by Chad Yoder, Daily News

Once a teen has a baby, she often has another and becomes further mired in economic shambles and even less likely to finish school. Research by a Brandeis University professor shows 20 percent of teen births are a second or higher baby for the mother.

"They like to have children who love them," said Lorraine Klerman, at Brandeis University's Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy. "It's an issue of standing in somebody else's shoes. Even though from our perspective, it does not seem like a good idea."

A teen may get pregnant again to keep a boyfriend or have children close in age, she said.

Advocates have searched for ways to block repeat teen pregnancies — including a Denver program in which teens received $1 every day they didn't get pregnant again.

Even though many experts say poverty has more to do with a teen getting pregnant than race or origin, numbers vary widely.

Hispanics lead black teenagers, whose rates have almost been halved in the last decade or so, in teen birth rates, the latest numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics show. Birth rates for Hispanic teens are more than three times the rates of whites.

Almost one in four Hispanic teen mothers gave birth to more than one child while still in their teens, according to a 2005 study by Child Trends, a Washington, D.C., research center. Hispanic teens are less likely to use contraception and often don't even talk about using protection, the center says.

Teen pregnancy could be more prevalent in some Latino cultures, experts say, because there's less stigma attached to being a young mother and more support for being a full-time homemaker and mother.

Mexican teenagers have the highest birth rates among Hispanic teens and Cubans have some of the lowest, federal numbers show.

A strong relationship with a caring adult is the best way to stop any teen pregnancy — first, second or third — experts say.

"One of the ways is to have two caring parents. In the absence of two caring parents, it can often be a caring teacher, principal, just an adult in the community or a mentor who can truly have a positive effect on young people. They're still adolescents and they tend to need adult guidance," said Bill Albert, a National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy spokesman.

Albert said a teen needs to hear: "Stay in school, do well in school and graduate. Sex still has meaning. It's not just a recreational activity. There are potentially very serious consequences."

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On the Web: teenpregnancy.org , guttmacher.org , www.cdc.gov/nchs