A new study has showed that the falling teenage pregnancy rate in the United States is not due to young people abstaining from sex, but as a result of a wider and better uptake of contraceptives and condoms. The Bush administration has been claiming for years that abstinence is the answer to dealing with unwanted teenage pregnancies.

You can read about this new study in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study found that abstinence accounted for only 14% of the fall in teenage pregnancies over the last decade, while 86% was due to better use of contraceptives and condoms. There was a 27% drop in the teenage pregnancy rate during the decade up to 2002. The study found that in 2002 sexually active teenagers had better use of contraceptive methods, including condoms and birth control pills than in 1995.

Many publicly funded programs in the USA promote abstinence-only-until-marriage at the cost of education on contraception – these programs prohibit information about the advantages/benefits of condoms and contraception.

Lead author, John Santelli, said “The United States seems to be following the recent patterns in other developed countries where increased availability and use of modern contraceptives and condoms have led to remarkable declines in teen pregnancy. If most of the progress in reducing teen pregnancy rates is due to improved contraceptive use, national policy needs to catch up with those realities.”

The authors concluded that public programs and policies should promote medically accurate information on condoms and contraception.

Opinion of the Editor of Medical News Today

From an Englishman’s point of view, it seems to me opinions in the USA are polarized on this issue and teenagers are caught in the middle. Surely, youngsters should be armed with all information. Abstinence will guarantee no pregnancy. Contraceptives and condoms will help keep the numbers of teenage pregnancies down. To say contraceptives are wrong because they are not 100% effective, or abstinence is wrong, does not help the teenager. With good education the teenager should know about all the benefits and all the pitfalls.

I sometimes receive emails from the USA from abstinence promoters who say it is wrong to promote contraceptives when they are not 100% effective. I also receive e-mails from people saying that abstinence promoters are right-wing idealists. But I rarely receive emails from people in the USA saying good education should explain the benefits of everything – abstinence, contraceptives and condoms – and their limitations/risks. If teenagers had all the facts, they would know that condoms are not 100% effective.

“U.S. TEEN PREGNANCY RATES ARE DOWN PRIMARILY BECAUSE TEENS ARE USING CONTRACEPTIVES BETTER”
Guttmacher Institute
Click here to view article online

“Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraceptive Use”
John S. Santelli, Laura Duberstein Lindberg , Lawrence B. Finer , Susheela Singh
American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2006.089169
Click here to view abstract online

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today