'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
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Plummeting birthrates among all teens — especially Hispanics — has helped bring this vital statistic to its record-low levels, says a new federal report.
Plummeting birthrates among all teens — especially Hispanics — has helped bring this vital statistic to record-low levels, says a new federal report.
Pediatricians should actively counsel teens about "emergency contraception" and even provide them with prescriptions or products ahead of time, to ensure they have the pills if they need them, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a policy statement released online Monday.
Two-thirds of U.S. pregnancies now end with the birth of a baby, a significantly higher rate than in 1990, when abortions were one-third more common than now, a federal report says.
In 16 states, teen birthrates tumbled by at least 20 percent in recent years, the federal government said in a report. Large declines such as these helped push the nation's teen birthrate to a new low in 2010.
A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.
A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.
The teen birthrate tumbled again in 2010, reaching a historic low and stretching across all age and ethnic groups, the federal government said Thursday.
Despite fears of a hypersexual culture, most American teens are postponing sex until their late teens or older, and typically use some kind of birth control when they do start, according to an extensive new federal study released Wednesday.
A surprising 80 percent of teenage boys say they are using condoms the first time they have sex, a government survey found in a powerful sign that decades of efforts to change young people's sexual behavior are taking hold.
A surprising 80 percent of teenage boys are using condoms the first time they have sex, a government survey finds. But another promising trend _ fewer teenagers having sex _ has leveled off.
Fewer teens and young adults are having sex, a government survey shows, and theories abound for why they're doing it less. Experts say this generation may be more cautious than their predecessors, more aware of sexually spread diseases. Or perhaps emphasis on abstinence in the past decade has had some influence.
Apparently, fewer teens and young adults are having sex, according to a federal study which offers numbers but doesn't examine the reasons. Why is it decreasing? "That's the $100,000 question," said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
A poll found that out of more than 1,000 teens, six in 10 had seen the show. Of those teens, 82 percent thought the show helped teens understand the challenges of childbearing much better, while only 15 percent thought it glamorized having a baby in high school.
For the first time in more than a decade, the federal government is funding sex education programs that aren't based solely on abstinence. But they're not just about handing out condoms, either.
Teens may "have dozens of reasons" for choosing to think that way, he added, "but I think [a cultural change is] what's happening here."
That seems to point to "a real change in cultural norms," he said.
