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Teenage Pregnancy Rates Fall Across all States, Study Reports

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: May 06, 2014 10:02 AM EDT

According to new research, the United States' teenage pregnancy rates have fallen across all states since the 1990s. In addition to teenage pregnancy rates, the researchers reported that the teenage birth rates and teenage abortion rates have fallen as well.

"This report demonstrates that, in fact, fewer teens are becoming pregnant than at any time since tracking of this data began - reflecting our finding that both birthrates and abortion rates among teens have steadily declined," the study authors wrote according to the Los Angeles Times.

Researchers from the nonprofit organization, Guttmacher Institute, calculated that from 1990 to 2010, the teenage pregnancy rate fell by 51 percent. In 2010, the rate was 57.4 pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers. For the teenage birth rate, the researchers found that from 1991 to 2010, the rate fell from 61.8 to 34.4 births per 1,000 teenagers, which is a 44 percent reduction. The teenage abortion rate fell the most from 43.5 abortions in 1988 to 14.7 per 1,000 teenagers in 2010.

The report also found that these three rates fell across racial and ethnic groups. The teenage pregnancy rates fell by 56 percent each for white and black teenagers and by 51 percent for Latino teenagers. Despite findings reductions in all states, each state's progress varied greatly. The teenage pregnancy rate was the highest in New Mexico with 80 pregnancies per 1,000 and the lowest in New Hampshire with just 28 pregnancies per 1,000.

"The decline in the teen pregnancy rate is great news," study leader Kathryn Kost of the Guttmacher Institute said reported by FOX News. "Other reports had already demonstrated sustained declines in births among teens in the past few years; but now we know that this is due to the fact that fewer teens are becoming pregnant in the first place."

The report can be found here.

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