Health officials reported on Tuesday that the number of teenage girls giving birth in the United States has dropped in previous years but say there's no reason to be complacent as many girls below 18-years old still get pregnant.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that while the number of teen moms has declined over the past 20 years, girls between 15 and 17-years old still give birth to 1,700 babies per week or 86,423 per year and this account for a quarter of teen births.
The new Vital Signs report from CDC says that birth rate per 1000 teens between 15 to 17 years old has dropped 63 percent over the last two decades. It says that in 1991, teen birth rate was 38. 6 percent but this was reduced to 14.1 percent in 2012 when CDC last recorded teen birth data.
Despite the big decline, the CDC says the number of teen births still needs to be reduced. CDC principal deputy director Ileana Arias said that pregnancy and birth among teens can have significant implications on their future as teenage girls who got pregnant may not be able to finish high school which could have a negative impact on their career and income in the future. Arias also pointed out the effects of early fatherhood in boys saying that young fathers may also need to sacrifice their education and put off their plans.
"We can't be complacent when we hear about these declines in teen pregnancies and births. We still need to make more progress in reducing health disparities and the public health burden related to teen pregnancies and births," Arias said. "Pregnancy or birth could interfere with finishing high school and possibly leading to negative educational, occupational and economic and health trajectories."
The CDC report also underscores a need for sex education among teens as one in four teenagers between 15 to 17-years of age were found to have never discussed sex with their guardians or parents albeit 73 percent of teenagers in the age group did not have sex yet. CDC also reported that birth rate is more prevalent in Hispanic, non-Hispanic black and American Indian/Alaska Native teenagers.
