Teenagers Taking More Care With Birth Control, Abstinence

U.S. teenagers today are having fewer pregnancies, babies and abortions than previous generations. Abortion rates are falling among teenagers -- from a high of about 24 abortions per 1,000 girls ages 15-17 in 1994 to 15 abortions per 1,000 girls in 2000, a 39 percent drop, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research group.

"This is not a blip on the radar screen; this is a real robust significant change in teenager behavior," said Bill Albert, spokesperson for the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Studies suggest that teens are growing more wary of casual sex, partially because at a younger age they were taught about AIDS and how it is transmitted, Albert said. As a result, they are using condoms more often, as well as more effective and long-lasting hormonal contraceptives.

Another factor may be the spread of sex education programs promoting abstinence in schools. The 1996 Welfare Reform bill included federal funding for abstinence-only programs. California refused that money because the federal rules were too restrictive. Still, the state education code says abstinence must be stressed in school education programs. Teens are told abstinence is the best and first choice, Albert said.

"There are a lot of young people who have clearly accepted the message that you do not have to have sex in your adolescent years," said Claire Brindis, co-director of the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy at the University of California-San Francisco.

Still, high school students outside a Concord, Calif., summer school said sex among teenagers is common. "Everyone I know who has sex uses something -- the shot, the pill, the patch. Condoms, of course," said 17-year-old Ranelle Rubino. Everybody uses condoms, said Josef Shojaee, a 16-year-old from Pittsburgh, who added he knows very few virgins. Some teens may be choosing alternatives to intercourse, like oral sex, because they see it as safer and less serious emotionally.

Back to other news for July 29, 2003