Young pregnancies down in U.S.

Pregnancy rates for women younger than 25, including teenagers, have declined in the United States, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report compares live births from 1990 to 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available.

Nearly 38 percent of pregnancies in 2004 were to women younger than 25, down from nearly 43 percent in 1990. The proportion among teens younger than 20 dropped from 15 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2004.

In Alabama, the numbers are remarkably similar, according to data compiled by the Vital Statistics Division of Statistical Analysis for the Alabama Department of Public Health in Montgomery.

Of the 63,420 live births in 1990, more than 11,500 were to women younger than 20. By 2006, however, the numbers of births to teenaged moms had dropped to 8,670.

Albert Woolbright, with the statistical analysis office, credited the free family planning initiatives offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as one reason for the drop in teen births. Federal and state budget cuts have virtually wiped out funding for those programs, which will likely mean a rise in births to young mothers in the coming years, he said.

"We've also been seeing a trend among women to postpone childbirth until after their 35th year," Woolbright said. "For years, too, the Department of Human Resources received a bonus for reducing the teen birth rate without increasing the state's abortion rate. Additionally, (the state's) abortion rates are down as are our fetal death rates."

Even closer to home, in Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties, the statistics regarding live births typically mirror those across the nation. While Colbert and Lauderdale saw declines from 1990 to 2006, however, Franklin saw a slight increase in births to teen mothers from 71 in 1990 to 77 in 2006.

In Colbert, there were 741 births, 141 to teen, compared to 614 births in 2006, with 80 to women younger than 20. In Lauderdale County in 1990, there were 1,066 total births, and 180 of those to teens. By 2006, the number of births had dropped to 1,026, 149 of which were to teens.

The CDC's report, "Estimated Pregnancy Rates by Outcome for the United States, 1990-2004," shows there were almost 6.4 million pregnancies in 2004 among women of all ages, about 6 percent fewer than the nearly 6.8 million in 1990.

"The latest pregnancy outcome report finds that there was little change in births and fetal loss numbers between 1990 and 2004. However, abortions fell 24 percent over this time period," said Stephanie Ventura, head of the Reproductive Statistical Branch at the CDC.

Other findings from the report: