The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday that birth rates among hispanic and black teenagers dropped by almost a half since 2006. Therefore reducing the overall rate for teen births. However, the highest rates still continue in this communities.

There was a dramatic declined over teen births among hispanics and black, 51 percent and 44 percent respectively. This change helped reduce the gaps but the births remain twice as high for these teem nationally compared with white teems, according to the statistics published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Aimee, left, and Ashlee Nelson hold their newborn sons Donavyn Bratten, left, and Aiden Lee Alan Dilts at Summa Akron City Hospital on Monday. The teenage moms gave birth about two hours apart. Credit: Cleveland
Aimee, left, and Ashlee Nelson hold their newborn sons Donavyn Bratten, left, and Aiden Lee Alan Dilts at Summa Akron City Hospital on Monday. The teenage moms gave birth about two hours apart. Credit: Cleveland

“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,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “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,” he added.

In the report, there were also present important socioeconomic and education gaps. Especially those where higher unemployment, lower income and education were more common in communities. And in communities = with the highest teen birth rates, regardless of race. In addition, counties with higher rates were clustered in southern and southwestern states.

To gather the information, it was analyzed national and state level data from the National Vital Statistics (NVSS) and examined trends in births to American teen of ages 15 to 19 between 2006 and 2014, according to the report.

The importance of pregnancy prevention

The CDC highlighted some of the important issues that teen births can affect on, from economics to education nationwide and even long-term impacts on teen parents and their children.

According to the CDC, in 2010 teen pregnancy and childbirth accounted for at least $9.4 billion in cost to U.S. taxpayers due to increased health care and foster care, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents and lost tax revenue because lower educational attainment and income among teen mothers.

In addition, teen birth has had a huge impact in high school dropout rates among teenage girls in the United States. About 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, while about 90 percent of women who do not give birth in their teenage years graduate from high school.

Source: CDC