According to a study published in the February issue of Pediatrics (and rehashed here - boy, the KOLD News Team sure have lovely teeth!), the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S hit an all-time low in 2005, with a rate of 40.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. This was, according to statisticians working on the report, the lowest the rate's been in the 65 years "for which we have consistent data". So "all-time" could be construed as (hang on, need to do some subtraction - when I took this job, I was told there'd be no math, goddammit) "dating back to 1942, as far as we can tell". The average age of a U.S. bride from 1950 to 1972 was about 20, so by "teen", does the survey mean "unwed teen"? I'm pretty sure there were a lot of pregnant teens in, say, the early 1800's; 'course, they were all married by the time they were 16. Ah - even I'm bored with the direction I'm taking this post. Back to the point.
So, wed, unwed, who knows, but the rate of pregnancies among teens is way down. This is a good thing. Question is, what's the root cause? Have teens started taking a look at the world we live in and come to the conclusion that, gee, sex can be fraught with risk, let's all stop, the lot of us? Or has educating teens on the importance of and need for birth control made an impact?
My guess would be #2, with a little bit of #1 thrown in. I'm not knocking abstinence - can't get a girl preggers if ya don't actually have sex with her, unless you've got reeeeeeally good aim. But it's just good sense, and good parenting, to teach your kids that if they're going to have sex, they need to do what they can to make sure it doesn't result in a baby. And judging from the numbers, it looks like an increasing number of people are having that conversation.
