Nevada’s largely plummeting teen birth rates mirror national trend

The overall teen birth rate in the United States has reached a record low with Nevada’s largely plummeting birth rates mirroring a national trend, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC released a report Thursday showing a significant reduction in overall teen births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19.

Nationally, the overall rate of 25.4 births, obtained from 2013-14 data, was a 38.5 percent decline from 2006-07 statistics and is the lowest rate ever recorded, the report shows.

Rates fell nearly 61 percent nationwide from 1991 to 2014.

In Nevada, teen birth rates dropped 44 percent in the comparison between 2006-07 statistics and 2013-14 numbers.

Chad Kingsley, health educator with the Southern Nevada Health District’s teen pregnancy prevention program, said confirmation of the dropping birth rates is not new but the numbers show what he believes is the impact of increased access to birth control and attention to the effects of teen pregnancy.

“I think it surprised everyone across the board,” he said.

Samantha Fredrickson, public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada, said pregnancies are still higher in lower-income neighborhoods in Nevada, suggesting it isn’t time to celebrate just yet.

“We’re also seeing increases in the rates of sexually transmitted infections among teens, including most recently the syphilis outbreak in Clark County,” she said in a statement.

Though teen birth rates may be dropping, CDC data shows reported rates of gonorrhea per 100,000 members of the population increased from 2,029.3 to 2,160.2 among Nevadans 15 to 24 years old between 2007 and 2013.

Nevada experienced a 54 percent decrease in Hispanic teen births from 2006-07 to 2013-14, according to CDC statistics from Thursday’s report.

“Nationally, and in many states, the largest decline occurred among Hispanic teens followed by black and then white teens,” the report said, without explaining the reason.

Black and Hispanic teens still have roughly double the birth rate of white teens nationwide and in the Silver State.

The CDC cited low parental educational attainment and limited opportunities for education and employment in neighborhoods with higher proportions of racial or ethnic minorities as possible contributing factors.

Kingsley suggested socioeconomics or less access to birth control could be causing the disparity.

Frederickson argued there’s a need for schools to provide better sexual education to their students.

The Southern Nevada Health District engages in community and after-school program sexual education outreach, Kingsley said.

Using grant money from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health, the district has funded evidence-based programs in teen pregnancy prevention.

Another grant from the same office will fund efforts from 2015 to 2020, and the district is implementing some programming encouraging parents to speak to their teenagers about sex, Kingsley said.

“While we’re still focusing on the male and female parts of the equation, in the next five years, we’re also going to the parents,” he said.

The CDC said it’s committed to preventing teen pregnancy, which costs U.S. taxpayers about $9 billion a year.

“The United States has made remarkable progress in reducing both teen pregnancy and racial and ethnic differences, but the reality is, too many American teens are still having babies,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement. “By better understanding the many factors that contribute to teen pregnancy we can better design, implement, evaluate, and improve prevention interventions and further reduce disparities.”

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Find @pashtana_u on Twitter.