According to a new report from the CDC, the teen birth rate in the US has dropped 9 percent compared to last year, which is a record low.
Since 1991 the teen birth rate for women aged 15 to 19 years old has reportedly declined by 67 percent and in 2016 amounted to 20.3 births per 1,000 women. The decline, CNN writes, is probably due to more teenagers being able to access and use contraceptives. Who would have thought! According to Dr. Elise Berlan, a physician in the section of adolescent medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, more teens are using some form of birth control, typically condoms followed by withdrawal and the pill.
Birth rates have also increased in older women, with the rate of births for women over 45 at a record high. For women aged 40 to 44 years old their birth rate has increased 4 percent over 2015, the highest for the age group since 1966.
If we want the teen birth rate to keep dropping in America, people need to give these teens all the god damn birth control they can get. “Putting restrictions on teens’ access to birth control could really have some profound effects on unintended births in those folks,” Berlan told CNN.
