Contraceptives reduce child poverty, teen pregnancies and abortions or do they?

Contraceptives reduce child poverty, teen pregnancies and abortions or do they?

One way to reduce childhood poverty is to reduce teen pregnancies. Research cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrate that reducing teen pregnancy is a critical and effective way to combat child poverty. So, with all the free access to birth control, why do we continue to have teen pregnancies?

The background

The research shows that teen pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by age 22 compared to about 90 percent of women who had not given birth during adolescence. The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated during adolescence, give birth as a teen, and face unemployment as a young adult. Where are the fathers? Not being responsible or accountable.

The CDC has declared teen pregnancy a public health priority and “winnable battle” that should be attacked using evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs with access to youth-friendly clinical services including birth control.  We do this while teen pregnancies continue.

It is also good news that teen pregnancies (as well as teen births and abortions) have steadily decreased, especially since 2008. Even so they remain unacceptably high.

What is driving the decrease in teen pregnancies?

The respected independent Guttmacher Institute just released a study that documents the decrease in teen pregnancies to historic lows since their peak in 1990. The study suggests that increased access to long-acting, reversible contraceptives like IUD’s and implants (LARC’s) are making a difference.

The study says about recent declines, “it appears likely that recent changes in contraceptive use are driving the reduction. There is evidence that contraceptive practices have improved among older teens. A recent study found that the proportion of 18- to 19-year-old women, who report using long-acting reversible contraceptive methods tripled between 2007 and 2009, and promotion and acceptance of these methods among teens and young adult women has increased.” A prior analysis found that contraceptives accounted for more than 80 percent of the decline in teen pregnancies while abstinence accounted for about 14 percent.

The bad news is that the Guttmacher study finds that the rate of decline in teen pregnancies for teens of color lags behind the decline for white teens. Why?

Studies in the state of Colorado and the city of St. Louis, where free or affordable, long-acting reversible contraceptives were made available to teens show the effectiveness of access to those contraceptives. The program in Colorado resulted in a reduction by 29 percent in teen births. In St. Louis, teen births declined to 34 per 1,000 teens versus the national average of 158.5 per thousand.

The cost to all of us from teen births is significant. In 2010, teen births cost the U.S. nearly $10 billion in increased public assistance and health care and income lost to lower educational attainment and reduced earnings among children born to teen mothers. That is spending that will be reduced when we reduce child poverty.

While many clinics as well as Planned Parenthood are providing much needed access to contraceptives and education which reduce teen pregnancies and combat child poverty, teens under 17 continue unabated.

Community efforts to fight child poverty that include access to contraceptives and evidence-based education to reduce teen pregnancies and the child poverty they cause. However, there is still a missing link. That is, impressing upon these young people the consequences and accountability of teen pregnancies. As this narrative explains, teen pregnancy should be a “winnable battle. However, in addition to contraceptives it comes down to the individual making right decisions.

It also makes sense that anyone who seeks to reduce the number of abortions start by driving responsibility and accountability to the individual level.