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Teen Pregnancy, Abortion Rates, And Hiv Statistics

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America is known for being a superpower, and this is absolutely true when it comes to leading the Westernized world in teen pregnancy, abortion rates, and HIV statistics (pink). In 1999, about half of US high school seniors said they’d had sex within three months of the survey taken (pink). 71% of Americans said they’d had sex by the age of 19, and the typical age of first sexual experience was reported to be 17 (purple).
According to the Guttmacher Institute, teen sex statistics have been steadily decreasing since the 1980s (purple). Contraceptive use between the ages of 15-19 has increased from 48% in 1982 to 78% between 2006-2010 (purple). There is a correlation between increased condom use in the states and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the…show more content…
Only 43% of sexually active female teenagers received counseling or testing for STIs within the last year (purple). Marginalized teens (LGBTQIA, homeless, teens of color, teens in foster care) are the most likely candidates for HIV/AIDS infections (pink).
Pregnancy is a similar story. Nearly 615,000 teenage women become pregnant on a yearly basis (purple). That is 6% of the teenage population- a record low in 2010. This number was down 51% from 1990’s statistics (purple). This drastic decrease has been a result of more teenagers using contraceptives (purple). Still, this rate is double that of Canada’s and Sweden’s teen pregnancy rates (purple). The states with highest teen pregnancy rates were New Mexico, followed by Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates were New Hampshire, Vermont, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Maine (purple). Most of these pregnancies were that of unwed mothers. Women living in poverty are nearly four times more likely to become pregnant than those in better socioeconomic situations (red). Teen fathers were two times as likely to be black than white.
These numbers are staggering compared to our European counterparts. Statistics show that teens in the United States and Europe are engaging in similar levels of sexual activity, but that European teenagers are more likely to use contraceptives, which is why they have much lower teen pregnancy rates (purple).
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