Introduction

Teenage pregnancy in the US is a topic rife with moral inferences and political implications. Three important questions surround the increasing tendency for adolescent childbearing to be cited as evidence of social and moral decline in the US. First, why did policymakers in the US declare an ‘epidemic’ of teenage pregnancies at precisely the time that birth rates to adolescents were actually beginning to decline? Second, why did lawmakers revoke financial support for poor mothers – including the young mothers who most need help – as a response to the said ‘epidemic’? Finally, if teenage pregnancy is perhaps not an epidemic, is it even a problem in the US? Answering these questions permits us to explore changing gender roles and public policy in relation to adolescent motherhood.

Statistical trends

Adolescent birth rates in the US reached their peak in the post-war Baby Boom, reaching a level of 96 births per 1,000 women under age 20 in 1957 (Ventura et al, 2001, p 10). Importantly, most of those births were to married parents. Teenage birth rates in the US have ranged from 63 per 1,000 in 1920, to 82 in 1950, to 89 in 1960 (Heuser, 1976, p 16). They went back down to 68 in 1970, and ironically were at 56 per 1,000 in 1975 when the ‘epidemic’ was declared – and they continued to fall from there to 53 in 1980. They rose to 63 in 1990, but went back down again to 49 per 1,000 in 2000 (Heuser, 1976; Ventura et al, 2001). Pregnancy rates are also declining, from 99 per 1,000 women under 20 in 1973 to 86 in 2000 (see Figure 2.1). The teenage pregnancy rate is down 29% since its most recent peak in 1990. Estimated abortion rates are also falling; the abortion rate has dropped 83% since it peaked in 1985. Birth rates are down 30% since their 1991 high.

Why are adolescent pregnancy and birth rates falling in the US? Although the US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state funds on educational programmes promoting abstinence, data from the National Survey of Family Growth show that the percentage of teenage girls who report having had sexual intercourse has declined only one percentage point, from 52.6% to 51.5% (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2004).