How Oregon’s Teen Birth Rate Dropped for 21 Years

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Monday, January 12, 2015

Annie Ellison, GoLocalPDX Reporter

The number of births per 1,000 teens dropped by 31 between 1991 and 2012, according to data released by the CDC. Between 2000 and 2012 alone, the rate dropped by 19. 

Experts attribute the drop to a combination of causes, from education, access to birth control, legislation, community programming and better relationship advice to a growing anti-abortion movement among youth. Oregon's birth rate in 2012, measured by the number of births per 1,000 female teens between 15 and 19, stood at 23.8, significantly lower than the national rate of 29.4. 

"At the end of the day, it's youth making better decisions," said Jessica Duke, Manager of Adolescent and School Health Programs at the Oregon Health Authority.

“With something like teen pregnancy, either teens are not having sex, or they’re doing it with better birth control methods,” Duke asserts. “On the behavior side, things have stayed the same.”

Education and access 

Oregon teens have better access to contraception, education, and abortion than teens in most other states. Oregon is one of only 13 states that requires comprehensive sexual education in all public schools. 

According to Duke, sexual education in Oregon ten years ago looked substantially different than it does today. 

A watershed comprehensive human sexuality education law, passed in 2009, mandates that "medically-accurate, age-appropriate" sexual education be taught alongside abstinence in all public schools. Previously, public schools in Oregon could legally teach an abstinence-only sexual education curriculum. 

Under Oregon's laws, a minor of any age is able to access health care services, including testing and treatment for sexually transmittted infections, without parental consent. 

Contraception

More youth are accessing Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), Duke said. The implanted contraceptives last between three and 10 years. Between 2008 and 2013, the number of teens using LARCs increased six-fold, according to the OHA. 

Teens also have increased access to abortion and emergency, over-the-counter contraceptives. Oregon has no laws that make it unnecessarily difficult for a teen to have an abortion if she chooses to do so, a report by the Population Institute found. Access to abortion was one of ten factors that ranked Oregon among the top three states nationally for reproductive sexual health rights in that report, alongside Washington and California. 

Still, not every Oregon teen can access birth control or reproductive health programs for free, Duke said, but reproductive health advocates argue that access is crucial to reducing unwanted pregnancies. 

“When it comes to lowering the teen pregnancy rate, we know what works: access to birth control and medically accurate, age-appropriate sexual health education," Stacy M. Cross, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette said in a statement. "When teens have the information they need, they make smarter decisions about sex."

The rate of teen abortion dropped significantly in the same 21 years in which the teen birth rate plummeted.

Anti-abortion movement among youth

Despite a ban on abstinence-only sexual education in Oregon public schools, teens are staying abstinent longer. Pro life groups attribute the drop in teen birth rates and teen abortion rates to this abstinence.

“While we would love to see abortion outlawed tomorrow, it’s lower than it’s ever been,”  said Oregon Right to Life Director of Communication Liberty Pike.  “I think the pro life movement has reached youth.” 

Pike pointed out in Texas, which still has abstinence-only sexual education, teen births are also dropping. 

“This generation has grown up with abortion and seen the consequences of abortion long term,” she said. Tike claimed social media and shows such as 16 and Pregnant make teens more critical of themselves and each other. 

“There’s more judgment among teens than there used to be,” she said.

Targeted programming

A WISE foundation grant allowed Oregon to institutionalize sexual education in schools and establish a holistic pregnancy prevention curriculum,  Duke said. My Future My Choice, a ten-week program targeting sixth graders that was developed in Oregon, focused on teen montorship and relationship choices. 

¡Cuídate! (take care of yourself), a nine-month program in Jackson, Marion, Multnomah, Cook, Deschutes and Jefferson Counties, focused on teens in the Latino community, who had a higher teen pregnancy rate. 

“It’s Your Game,” to be implemented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, is a computer-based teen program aimed at delaying the onset of sexual activity. 

What's next 

Although the teen pregnancy rate continues to decline, Oregon, and the United States, have a higher rate than any other industrialized nation. 

According to a report by the Population Institute, nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. While Oregon's programming and access set a measure for other states, teens in rural areas still experience more difficulty accessing resources than teens in urban areas. 

Experts say that the next step for Oregon is to make teen programming and all birth control, both preventative and emergency, free. 

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