“ even though the rate is coming down, and even though contraceptive use is improving, we have so much work to do, ” said Susan Tew of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which released the adolescent pregnancy statistics Thursday. The institute and the politics each released figures in junction with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which today will launch its drive to cut pregnancy rates by one-third in 10 years. Fifty percentage of adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years old have had intercourse at least once, according to the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, a government survey conducted every five years. That ‘s down from 55 percentage in 1990 and marks the foremost decrease since the survey began 25 years ago. In 1970, 29 percentage of girls said they had had sexual activity, a share that climbed steadily until 1995. A survey released last year found similar results for adolescent boys. In 1995, 55 percentage reported having arouse, down from 60 percentage in 1988.
Thursday ‘s sketch besides found more women are using contraceptives, particularly condoms. Fifty-four percentage of the partners of women who began having sexual activity in the 1990s used condoms, up from 36 percentage in the former 1980s and 18 percentage in the 1970s. The survey, which interviewed women of all ages, found that the youngest women were most probable to have received formal teaching on parturition control, preventing AIDS and how to say no to sex. ninety-six percentage of 18 and 19 year olds had this education. “ With formal education becoming thus common, it may change the climate both among teens themselves and among teens and adults so there ‘s more exposed discussion on this write out, ” said statistician Bill Mosher of the National Center for Health Statistics.
The pregnancy prevention campaign released results showing that six in 10 Americans believe teens should not be sexually active, but if they are, they should have access to contraception. The survey, conducted in March, besides found that 95 percentage of Americans say it is important for club to send teens a impregnable abstinence message. But the campaign says it wants to move past the dissentious debate over abstinence versus birth control and employ a variety show of approaches .