Increase in teenage birth rates is unexplained

Birth rates among teenage girls are increasing and a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides no explanation as to why. In Hawaii and 25 other states teen pregnancies rose significantly in 2006. In the two previous years, only one state showed marked increases.

Based on a review of birth certificates for 2006, the report ranked Hawaii fourth among states in percentage increases after Alaska, Mississippi and Montana. The state had 40.5 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 in that year, compared to 36.2 in 2005, a 12 percent jump. The national average also rose, by  3 percent to 42 births per 1,000 teenage girls or about 435,000 of 4.3 million births in the nation.

Other than correlating states' populations of racial groups that typically have higher birth rates, the report gave no indication of causes for the increases. However, the state with the highest rate – Mississippi, with 68.4 births per 1,000 -- also ranks poorly when it comes to comprehensive sex education programs.

Abstinence-only programs have not been successful in reducing sexual activity among teenagers and teenagers who pledge abstinence until marriage are significantly less likely to use condoms or other birth control. Hawaii and Mississippi are among a decreasing number of states that still take federal funds for abstinence-only programs. Whether there is a causal conjunction with the high teen birth rates isn't known. However, experts suggest that ignorance about sexual matters combined with movies, web sites, magazines and television programs that present teenage pregnancies unrealistically or in an appealing way could be one reason for the increases.