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Fertility rates in the United States are continuing their decades-long decline, due in large part to a steep slide in teenage pregnancies down to historic lows, according to a new government report released Thursday. The National Center for Health Statistics said the pregnancy rate of 102 pregnancies out of every 1,000 women is 12 percent below the 1990 peak of about 116 per 1,000. Only once in the past 30 years, 1997, has it been lower, and only marginally, the center said. Since 1990, the report said, pregnancy rates are down in almost every category. The only exception is among women over 30, whose pregnancy rate has increased steadily with every passing year. But the rate is declining among women in their 20s, who form the single largest group of pregnant women, and among teenagers of all races and ethnicities. The abortion rate also has dropped, reflecting a continuous slide since peaking in 1990. The report only examined the trajectory of pregnancy rates through 2009, stopping there because more recent data on abortions is not available yet. But newer statistics on birth rates suggest thedecline is continuing, though not as quickly as it did in recent years when the recession accelerated trends well underway. Women already were having fewer children than women of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations, so those under 30 could postpone childbirth until the economy improved without affecting their longstanding goals of having a first or second child. “What happened was a postponement of births among younger women with a longer time horizon,” said Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist specializing in family issues. “Women over 30 couldn’t wait that much longer.” While the decelerating decline in birth rates since 2009 reflects the easing of the recession’s impact, the striking drop in teenage pregnancies shows little sign of abating. The teen pregnancy rate in 2009, of about 38 per thousand girls, was 39 percent lower than the 1991 peak of 62. Just four years later, in 2012, it reached a record low of about 29. Sally Curtin, one of the report’s authors, said the historic drop is being driven by a long, downward trend of fewer teenagers having sex, and among those who do, a sharp increase in their use of contraceptives. “It’s as if both sides in the debate over teen pregnancy were right,” said Cherlin, noting that concerns over the AIDS epidemic may have played a role in the growing use of condoms among teenage boys. “AIDS has forced many school districts to talk about contraception, even if they didn’t want to,” he said. The national trends are evident in the Washington area. Teenage pregnancy rates have plummeted in the District, down to less than a quarter of where they were two decades ago, said Brenda Rhodes Miller, director of the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In 1993, the pregnancy rate for teenagers aged 15 to 19 was about 239 per 1,000. By 2011, it was under 55. “The decline has been amazing,” she said, adding that the reasons for it are not clear. Teen pregnancy rates are declining in every ward, she said, though more slowly in wards 7 and 8, which have the city’s lowest income levels. More than 500 of the 879 births to District teens in 2011 were to residents of those two wards. The one-year drop was relatively small. In more affluent wards, the teen pregnancy rate dropped by double digit percentages. Even with declining pregnancy rates, the United States still has one of the highest overall birth rates among industrialized countries. The 10 nations with the highest birth rates in the world are all in Africa. |
11月5日發(fā)布的政府工作報告指出，美國的懷孕率幾十年來持續(xù)走低，很大程度上是由于青少年懷孕率大幅下滑至歷史新低的緣故。 國家健康統(tǒng)計中心表示，與1990年的高峰時期——每千名婦女中116名懷孕相比，懷孕率下降了12%，至每千人102名。在過去30年間，只有1997年的懷孕率比現(xiàn)在略低。 工作報告還指出，從1990年起，各個年齡段的懷孕率都呈下降趨勢。只有30歲以上的婦女例外，她們的懷孕率每年都在穩(wěn)步上升。但是，對所有種族而言，20多歲的婦女作為懷孕女性的主力軍，其懷孕率卻持續(xù)下降。流產率自1990年達到最高值后持續(xù)走低。 這一報告只總結到2009年的懷孕率變化軌跡，之后關于流產率的數(shù)據現(xiàn)在還沒有統(tǒng)計。然而，從最新的出生率可以看出，懷孕率仍在降低，速度卻在減緩，不像近幾年經濟蕭條時期下幅那樣明顯。 現(xiàn)在的婦女普遍比她們的父輩與祖父輩生的孩子少。所以，不到30歲的夫妻，可以等到經濟條件比較好時再生孩子，這并不影響他們要1個、2個孩子的計劃。 美國約翰霍普金斯大學的安德魯·切爾林是一位專門研究家庭方面的問題社會學家，他表示：“現(xiàn)在的年輕婦女推遲生育的時間更長。而30歲以后的婦女們則會選擇盡早生育?！?/p> 2009年后出生率下降速度減緩，這表明經濟衰退帶來的影響在逐漸減輕，但青少年懷孕的數(shù)量仍在大幅降低，絲毫沒有緩解的跡象。2009年青少年懷孕率大概為每千人38人，比1991年時的最高值（每千人中62人懷孕）下降39%。而在2012年，這一比率達到歷史新低：每千人有29人懷孕。 其中一位報告編寫者薩利·科廷表示，越來越少的青少年進行性行為已成為一個長期趨勢，而那些進行性行為的青少年，越來越多的采取避孕藥等避孕措施，這推動了懷孕率的持續(xù)下跌。 科廷還表示，似乎支持與反對青少年懷孕都有其正確之處。他還指出，因為擔心感染艾滋病，越來越多的男青年選擇使用避孕套。 他說：“艾滋病的蔓延使得許多學校開設關于避孕的教育課程，即使學校不想如此?！?/p> 在華盛頓地區(qū)，這一趨勢非常明顯。 華盛頓地區(qū)防止青少年懷孕活動的主管布倫達·羅茲表示，在這一地區(qū)，青少年懷孕率驟降，降至不到20年前比率的1/4。1993年，15-19歲的青少年懷孕率約為每千人中239人懷孕，到2011年時，這一數(shù)據已降至每千人中不到55人懷孕。 她還說：“這一下降幅度實在是太大了。”并表示，導致這一現(xiàn)象的原因還不清楚。 她說，青少年懷孕率在每個區(qū)都呈下降趨勢，而在7區(qū)和8區(qū)這兩個收入水平最低的地區(qū)，懷孕率降低速度較慢。2011年，華盛頓地區(qū)的879名新生兒中，500名來自這兩個區(qū)。 本年度的降幅相比前幾年不算大。但較富裕區(qū)的青少年懷孕率仍以2位數(shù)的比率下跌。 盡管國內懷孕率持續(xù)走低，美國依舊是發(fā)達國家中出生率最高的國家之一。全世界出生率最高的10個國家都在非洲。 （譯者 我愛皮膚 編輯 丹妮） |
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