7 Healthcast: Teen Pregnancy

The teen years are a time of firsts -- first car, first love, and increasingly, first child.

Heather Boonstra/Guttmacher Institute
"The teen pregnancy rates have actually jumped for the first time in the last few decades."

A sexual and reproductive health think-tank called the Guttmacher Institute has released data that show the number of pregnant teens rose 3 percent in 2006.

That's a reversal from sharp declines of more than 40 percent seen during the 1990s.

Heather Boonstra/Guttmacher Institute
"That progress really came to a halt in the 2000s."

Boonstra says a focus on abstinence-only sex education in the 2000s simply didn't work and suggests adding birth control 101 to sex ed.

Heather Boonstra/Guttmacher Institute
"Programs that teach about both actually show to help teens delay sexual activity, help them to have fewer sexual partners and help them to use contraceptives more consistently."

Advocates for the abstinence-only programs say it's too simplistic to blame their message for the increase in teen pregnancies. Instead, they cite a bombardment of the wrong messages from the media and pop culture, and no message at all from many parents who may be reluctant to talk about sex with their teens.

The new numbers echo previous data from the C.D.C., which found an uptick in the number of teens not only getting pregnant but carrying babies to full term.

Heather Boonstra/Guttmacher Institute
"An increase in teen birth rates could either mean that fewer teens are getting abortions, or it means that there are more pregnancies overall, and what this data show is that there are more pregnancies overall."

Indeed, the Guttmacher Institute report also shows a 1 percent increase in teen abortions in 2006.

The C.D.C is expected to release additional teen pregnancy data later this spring.

The 2006 increase in teen pregnancy wasn't limited to one racial group. Rates increased for white, Hispanic and African-American teens.

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