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Publication Date: December 1999
Publisher: Guttmacher Institute
Author(s): Jacqueline E. Darroch
Research Area: Population and demographics; Social conditions
Type: Report
Abstract:
The 1990s have witnessed sustained declines in teenage
birthrates, a heartening development in view of the often negative effects of adolescent childbearing on young women and their children and the costs to society as a whole.1 Teenage births should not be the only
concern, however. More than three-quarters of pregnancies among teenagers each year are unintended, and more than one-quarter end in abortion;2 therefore, helping young women avoid an unintended pregnancy is also an important public policy goal. Here, again, the news is encouraging: The teenage pregnancy rate also dropped in the 1990s.