Fertility Rate Increase Reveals 'Deeper Problems' Of Rising Teen Births, Unintended Pregnancies, Letter To Editor Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Fertility
Article Date: 09 Jan 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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"Rather than celebrating" an increase in U.S. fertility rates, "we must recognize that it reflects deeper problems that need to be addressed," John Seager, president of Population Connection, writes in a USA Today letter to the editor. According to Seager, the U.S. has a "much higher" rate of unintended pregnancy than other industrialized countries, and the U.S. teen birth rate also is increasing.

The reasons for the increasing rates are not "hard to figure out," Seager writes, adding, "The federal government has wasted more than a billion dollars on ineffective, inaccurate and often harmful abstinence-only programs over the past decade." In addition, "far too many women" face "significant roadblocks" when trying to access contraceptives, according to Seager. He adds that higher fertility rates will "bring faster population growth" to the U.S., which reached a population of 300 million last year (Seager, USA Today, 1/8).

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