And by "true for you," I don't mean you personally. I mean, anecdotally, have you seen a rise in teen pregnancies. Kthxbye.

One of my dearest friends, an abortion worker, seems to think so.

If my experiences on the bus are anything to go by, more 15 year olds are having kids these days than they were a decade ago, so yes.

Actually, no. My daughter knows of a couple of girls in her high school, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I remember when I was in high school (Class of '84). It seemed like a good third or more of the girls gave birth somewhere in their four years of school. (Heck, one girl I attended school since grade school with had a baby in her freshman year and was pregnant again at graduation). It was nice to read that it was on a downward spiral, so to see a rise at all is rather sad.

My wife, a high school teacher, would say yes. Somewhere greater than 10%, and perhaps as high as 20%, of the girls are either pregnant or have had babies. Some come to high school having already had one.

Teen daughter a lesbian.

Life good.

Thinking about it a little more....

Cousin 1, the 17-year-old, is a really smart kid with a bit of a rebellious streak. Her mom (my first cousin) got pregnant in her early 30s and decided to have the kid. Problem (at the time) was that the father was black. There was lots of concern over whether my grandfather would accept the biracial kid. (I think it was an open question right up until she was born. Of course, he fell in love with her immediately.)

Cousin 2, the 15-year-old: Her mom is a really great mom, but she's sort of unlucky in love (and life). She's been married a few times, and I think her five kids have 4 different fathers. But man, she's so wonderful with them. (And the new baby's great grandparents, my aunt and uncle, will be totally adoring and will spoil the little guy. They never said a harsh word about their granddaughter getting pregnant, never thought less of her.)

It'd be easy to blame both of their mothers for past behavior -- except that they're both really great moms.

I'm not sure I have a point, other than to start some sort of discussion.

And.... I just deleted two paragraphs about how we shouldn't indict the parents (or the kids), and about abstinence education, etc. Probably best to just leave it at "Discuss," because I'm not really sure what point I could ever make. Mostly, I have a bunch of inarticulate questions.

And I think it's really, really cool that my two young cousins, new mothers, are living with THEIR mothers, and haven't been kicked out. I don't know if things are changing, or if my cousins are just really good moms that way. I guess that's one of my inarticulate questions. Carry on. Sorry this is such an unstructured mess.

Anecdotally, I don't date anyone under 30 unless she has BS degree. Sorry, ladies, a BA just don't cut it; you'll have to wait a few years.

Yes. My 16 year-old niece is going to be induced on Friday (her 17th birthday.)

At her baby shower there were SEVEN other girls that were either pregnant or had newborns. It's to the point that at her school they have special classes at the school about taking care of babies. (It's a middle class suburban school.)

I see pregnant teenage girls all the freaking time.

Oh also, niece's mom got pregnant at 19. I'm honestly shocked that she didn't have my niece on birth control. This girl (niece) definitely takes after her mom as far as being boy crazy. Her mom started having sex at 14. I'm more shocked that she didn't have my niece on birth control than my niece getting pregnant.

I don't see it in general just because I don't get out much.

Personally my 19 year old (20 in February) niece is pregnant after miscarrying earlier this year. Neither pregnancy was planned. The boyfriend gave her an ultimatum - him or the baby. My niece keeping the baby (it's a girl) and the boyfriend will pay child support. She has a good head on her shoulders, a good job and I don't think there's much to worry about.

Her younger sister just turned 18 and is a bit of a wild-child. I'm surprised she hasn't gotten pregnant. She is in no way emotionally ready to have a kid.

Their mother was not a good influence. The older niece was born when her mother was 15 (my brother is not the bio-dad, but is to the 18 year old and a 16 year old boy).

I don't get out much either, apparently- I don't think I know any teens right now. That makes me kind of sad.

My idiot nephew made me a great uncle, but I don't know if the mother was teenaged. I presume so.

My household --
Me: Old, not pregnant.
Eileen: Teenager, lesbian. Does not sleep with men. Actually has a fear of pregnancies, imagines the little fetus creeping out at night and killing people then sneaking back into the womb. Which seriously cracks me up.
Chris: Teenager, gay. Does not sleep with women.

So, no pregnancies, but I get to worry constantly about HIV.

I was pregnant with my first child when I was 19 years old, so I got caught up in the "teen pregnancy" statistics (this was the late 80s)... But I was married at the time (and I'm still married to the same person, 20 years later). I was an Army wife, and most of my peers were also teens (late teens), but we were married, so I don't know where we all fell into the "statistics"... In fact, I wouldn't have even known I was a statistic if I hadn't overheard my OBGYN's nurse saying that they needed to "report" me since I was a "teen."

I think it's a cultural thing.

Growing up listening to women be referred to as 'bitches' and 'hos' (and even referring to one's friends using those terms - even in jest) has a knock-on effect. I think young women today feel generally less 'powerful' and less able to refuse to have unsafe sex. Also, there's about a trillion hours of hardcore porn a click away... so people are more sexualised at an earlier age. I also blame marketers who make very adult-looking (read: slutty) clothing for 'pre-teen' girls.

Of course, I could be wrong. People love sex: it's hard-wired into us (three cheers for Evolution!)... but it's never been SOLD to children in the way that it is currently.

Been reading the Daily Mail, chuck?

they needed to "report" me since I was a "teen".

That's interesting, amyms. In the UK pregnancies to women aged 18 and 19 aren't counted as 'teen' except when used to compare statistics with other countries (and teenage pregnancy strategies are generally focussed on those under 16).

I do wonder why the US reports such high levels of teen pregnancy when the rate of teenage sexual activity is approx. the same as that in Europe? This is a fascinating study from the Lancet on global trends in sexual activity. The UK figures are interesting as well - despite 'mandatory' sex ed and free contraception (including free, OTC, emergency contraception) teen pregnancy rates are very high, but a closer look reveals that the rates are very high specifically in areas of multi-generational welfare dependency and among teens of specific ethnicities (Caribbean, but not Asian), so cultural variables are obviously very important.

The most interesting statistic for me in the article linked in the OP is that the US birth rate is now at replacement level for the first time in almost thirty years. The anti-immigration campaigners should be happy.

Gah, shoot me now. "...cultural and socioeconomic variables are very important."

Also, anecdotally - there has always been lots of young pregnancy in my family and I grew up in a fundy born-again pentecostal group in which young marriages were the norm (girls married at 16; a prohibition on even being alone with a member of the opposite sex does that) so I'm quite the black sheep for having made it now to 31 and not spawning. My father was a grandfather at 32 and a great-grandfather by 45, for pete's sake. The family spans US, Europe and Australia, for data gathering :)

I live in a very young neighborhood. Lots of immigrants. Lots of teenagers. There's a pretty high fertility rate. The ethnic breakdown, in case you're interested, is roughly 40% Latino, 30% Asian, 30% white.

I'm trying hard to remember the last time I saw a pregnant teenager, or a teenager pushing a baby carriage, and I'm drawing a blank. It's just not something I see very much around here. I see plenty of twentyish women with kids but no 14-15 year olds with kids. If I had to provide an explanation, I'd say that this neighborhood tends to attract working-class strivers, people who have managed to move up the ladder a little bit, from rougher neighborhoods. I suspect that people from such backgrounds would be more old-school in their values, committed to moving even further up the ladder, and avoiding behaviors not consistent with that goal, such as getting pregnant -- or impregnating someone -- at the age of 14.

I was literal when I said I don't get out much - only once, maybe twice a week do I go outside the house.

More info:

I'm in Canada and I don't know how it compares to the U.S. in teen pregnancies.

The birth of this great-niece will be my second great-niece and I have two great-nephews.

My mum was 17 when she had her first kid (this was in the late '50s). She married at 16 but she wasn't pregnant. She thought leaving home would make her life better. Ha. Ha. Ha. She was also made to leave high school when her pregnancy started to show. It was thought she would be a bad influence on the other students (she was married*, ffs!). It sure has changed since then.

*Please note: I am not anti-out-of-wedlock babies.

I recently saw a study that was conducted in 1999, showing that HALF of the couples in an infertility support group -- that is, they had actively been trying to become pregnant for at least one full year -- had no idea that they should be scheduling intercourse during certain times of the month.

Which leads me to believe that sex ed in this country sucks, when people don't even know how to do the thing they're "supposed" to be doing by waiting until they're married and having procreative sex; I can't imagine how little information they're getting about contraception. And official policies are certainly trying to make sex ed suck even more, so it really wouldn't surprise me if teen pregnancy was on the rise.

But, anecdotally, I have nothing to contribute; the only teens I know are boys, and none of them seems to be pregnant.

Been reading the Daily Mail, chuck?

No, but I'm sure I'm parroting someone's opinion. I do that sort of thing with alarming regularity. I was blaming early exposure to massive hours of television for the increase in ADHD for 20 years before research bore me out.

"These lyrics depict men as sexually insatiable, women as sexual objects, and sexual intercourse as inconsequential. Other songs about sex don't appear to influence youth the same way...

"These lyrics are likely to promote the acceptance of women as sexual objects and men as pursuers of sexual conquest. Despite the fact that degrading sexual lyrics are particularly demeaning for women, they affect adolescent boys and girls similarly."

I live near Worcester, and there's a lot of 'disadvantaged' white teen mothers with prams EVERYWHERE. They're usually smoking / texting at a bus stop whilst their unnoticed infants scream their lungs out. The fact that 99% of these youths listen to rap 24/7 is just a coincidence, I'm sure.