teen births

In July, public health departments across the country got a letter from the Trump administration abruptly cutting off funding for teen pregnancy prevention efforts in the middle of the program’s grant cycle. The move means that many teens will miss out on receiving an education that could — quite literally — change the trajectory of their lives. The abrupt funding cut — which came down without reason or explanation, according to grantees — also cuts off research efforts right at the evaluation stage. That’s the stage when public health practitioners rigorously assess a program’s outcomes,…

New data from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics show that the US teen birth rate dropped substantially between 2007 and 2015, but it has declined most slowly in rural areas. "From 2007 through 2015, teen birth rates declined 50% in large urban counties, 44% in medium and small urban counties, and 37% in rural counties," Brady E. Hamilton, Lauren M. Rossen, and Amy M. Branum report. They note that declines occurred in all states and in all major racial groups, but geographic disparities have persisted. In a 2014 Guttmacher Policy Review article, Heather D. Boonstra investigated…