Are teen pregnancy rates up or down?

Answer 1

The most recent results show that they are down(due to more use of long term Birth Control like depo-provera (the shot) and IUDs) but that condom use is now going down The 2005 national YRBS shows a small decline in condom use by young women and a more sizeable increase in non use. The change in condom use is not significant but its looks like the change in nonuse and in the weighted average contraceptive failure are. I would stress that these numbers are not published. The decrease in condom use is most likely due to 7 years under Republican domination. Republicans have not increased family planning funds to make up for inflation and they have spent $1.5 billion of our taxpayer $$$ on "abstinence-only" which is NOT allowed to talk about birth control EXCEPT in its failure and these programs have also lied to kids about things e.g. "you can get AIDS from skin to skin contact" and made sexist comments like "girls who wear tank tops, should be afraid of being raped because guys can't control themselves" The US does NOT have any funding for "abstinence plus" which means pushing abstinence PLUS teaching about contraception. Abstinence plus has been shown to work, whereas abstinence-only results in people NOT using condoms the first time they have sex.

Answer 2

It has certainly increased. From what I have learned in health class, around 1 million teenage girls become pregnant in the U.S. every year or 1/3 of young women become pregnant during their teen years in the U.S.. During the late 1980's-1990's it certainly was not 1/3 of teenage girls becoming pregnant.