Nearly 25 years ago, teen pregnancy reached an all-time high in Washington state.
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the teen birth rate in our state was 23.4 births for every 1,000 teenage girls in 1991. Since then, teen birth rates have declined by 56 percent. Furthermore, in the last year alone, the teen birth rate decreased by eight percent
This decline is important. The Center for Disease Control reports that teen mothers are “…more likely to have lower school achievement and drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as a young adult.” Additionally, teen births are cost Washington taxpayers $124 million in 2010 alone.
While the decrease in unplanned pregnancy among teens is important, there’s always more we can do. To learn more, click here and here.