The U.S. fertility rate for women aged 15 to 44 has recently dropped even further, well under the replacement rate -- were it not for immigration, America would be shrinking.
UPDATE 11/14/13: Sex & Birth Control Go Together Like a Horse & Carriage
-- From "Birthrate among teens hits record low" by Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer 12/22/10
The rate at which U.S. women are having babies continued to fall between 2008 and 2009, federal officials reported Tuesday [12/18/10], pushing the teen birthrate to a record low and prompting a debate about whether the drop was caused by the recession, an increased focus on encouraging abstinence, more adolescents using birth control or a combination of those factors.
The birthrate among U.S. girls ages 15 to 19 fell from 41.5 to 39.1 births per 1,000 teens - a 6 percent drop to the lowest rate in the nearly 70 years the federal government has been collecting reliable data, according to a preliminary analysis of the latest statistics.
. . . the total fertility rate [is] below the level needed to sustain the size of the population for the second year after being above the replacement rate in 2006 and 2007 for the first time in 35 years.
"These trends show that the risk-avoidance message of abstinence has 'sticking power' for young people," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. "This latest evidence shows that teen behaviors increasingly mirror the skills they are taught in a successful abstinence education program."
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From "US teen birth rate still far higher than W. Europe" by Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 12/30/10
The rate of teen births in the U.S. is at its lowest level in almost 70 years. Yet, the sobering context is that the teen pregnancy rate is far lower in many other countries. The most convincing explanation is that contraceptive use is much higher among teens in most Western European countries.
The teen birth rate for Western Europe and a few other countries is dramatically lower. In the United Kingdom it's 24 per 1,000 girls. In traditionally Catholic Ireland, it's 16 and in Italy it's 5. France's rate is 7 per 1,000. Canada's rate is under 13, Sweden's is under 8, Japan's is about 5, and in the Netherlands it's close to 4.
The disparity has existed for decades. Several experts say the reason mostly has to do with more realistic approaches to birth control.
Birth control is less expensive and easier for teens to get in many other developed countries than in the United States. And teachers, parents and physicians tend to be more accepting of teenage sexuality and more likely to encourage use of contraception, said Sarah Brown, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
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From "Massachusetts leads a trend of later-in-life motherhood" by Peter Schworm, Boston Globe Staff 12/23/10
. . . About 30 percent of babies in Massachusetts are now born to women 35 and older, the highest rate in the country and a striking sign of the societal shift toward having children later in life.
The new statistics, released last week by the US Census Bureau, show Massachusetts at the forefront of the national trend, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, and Connecticut in proportion of births to women between the ages of 35 and 50. The survey, taken from 2005 to 2009, included all births, not just first children.
Nationally, about 14 percent of all births in 2008 were to women 35 and older, up from 9 percent in 1990, according to a 2010 Pew Research Center study.
“Women who are better educated tend to postpone having children,’’ said D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center who has studied motherhood.
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From "'Little Ball of Cells'? Post-Abortive Women React to MTV's 'No Easy Decision'" by Silent No More Campaign, posted at Catholic Online 1/1/11
Women from the Silent No More Awareness Campaign (SNMAC) reacted with sorrow and disappointment Thursday at MTV's "No Easy Decision" program depicting a young mother with an infant child who goes through an abortion.
Dr. Alveda King, Director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life and a SNMAC spokeswoman, said she identified with the young woman in the program. "I ached for Markai," stated Dr. King. "Before one of my abortions, Planned Parenthood told me that my baby was 'just a clump of cells.' Decades later, this beautiful young mother was told the same lie. I pray that Markai and all women like her will seek true healing and restoration from a caring post-abortion program like Rachel's Vineyard."
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Click headlines below for previous articles:
U.S. Birthrate Below Replacement; Record Unwed Birthrate
Sexual Disease Epidemic Means Infertile Generation Imminent
Study Gives Hope to Industrialized Nations Facing Population Declines
Contraceptive Failures: 1/3 French Pregnancies Unplanned, Most Aborted
World Health Organization: Earth's Enemy is Too Many Babies