WUNRN
UPI - United Press International
USA PREGNANCY RATE LOWEST IN 12
YEARS
HYATTSVILLE, Md.,
Dec. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. pregnancy rates declined about 10 percent each for married
and unmarried women since 1990, researchers say.
Sally Curtin, Joyce Abma
and Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Stanley Henshaw of the
Guttmacher Institute found the U.S. pregnancy rate in 2009 was 102.1 per 1,000
women ages 15-44 -- the lowest level in 12 years. Only the 1997 rate of 101.6
was lower in the last 30 years.
Rates for women age 30
and younger fell during 1990-2009, rates for women age 30 and older increased
and rates for teenagers reached historic lows in 2009, the report said.
From 1990-2009, birth
rates fell 51 percent for non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black teenagers
and 40 percent for Hispanic teenagers.
The birth rate for
married women was 72 percent higher than the rate for unmarried women; the
abortion rate for unmarried women was almost five times higher than the rate
for married women, the report said.
The data on pregnancy
outcomes were calculated using data from the National Vital Statistics System,
the Abortion Surveillance System, the Guttmacher Institute and the National
Survey of Family Growth.
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