Teen Pregnancy, The Rates Are Lowering

One would think by the number of teen mothers you see these days that the teen pregnancy rate is on the rise, well that's not true. Numbers show that from 1996 to 2006 the pregnancy rates among 15-20 year olds have dropped by about 30%. This can be attributed to a number of factors such as abstinence, prescribing of birth control medicines, higher risk of STDs, and education programs.

Even though some people say that sexual education programs actually lead to more and earlier sexual activity, they are actually the biggest reason for the drop in the teenage pregnancy rate. The education programs are initiated in school and in the community teach teenagers the health, social, and economical risks associated with early pregnancy. Some of the programs hand out condoms to males and prescribe birth control medicines to females in hopes at least preventing pregnancy and reducing the risk of STD transmission in the case of sexual activity. Other programs are tailored to educating teens on issues such as high dropout rate, financial burden, the family strain when dealing with teenage pregnancy.

The numbers show that these programs are in fact working. That is motivation in itself to continue to try to get the teen pregnancy rate even lower. The target rate is 50% of the 1996 levels by the year 2010. It may be hard to get the rates down that low in the next three years but the effort would be a huge victory to give these teenagers a choice about their future.