Teenage births are rising at a rate that recalls the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Counselors say its because many teens today think it makes no difference what they do.
The National Center for Health Statistics said Thursday that the birthrate for girls age 15-17 shot up 19 percent in two years. Altogether, 36 of every 1,000 girls between those ages had a baby.The study found the birthrate for black teenagers - 80 per 1,000 - was nearly three times that of white teens - 28 per 1,000. Birthrates for other age groups also rose, although not as sharply as among teens.
The last time teenage birthrates rose sharply was in the 1960s, when changing morality cut through old prohibitions on youthful sex, said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who wrote the agency's report.
People who counsel teens say their problems reflect adult problems.
"I think there's a feeling that people aren't valuable, they (teens) aren't valuable and it doesn't matter what you do," said Nancy Blanks, who works with teenagers in South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia for the Save the Children Federation.
"So many social programs are failing, and the kids are caught in the middle of this," she said. "Their parents are failing, and the kids take the brunt of this."
The report said teenage birthrates peaked in 1972 at 39 out of 1,000 women. They fell steadily to 1986, when fewer than 31 out of 1,000 teenage girls gave birth. The next year, teen births began to rise again.
The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control, William Roper, said he was disturbed by the development.
"When young teenagers are sexually active, they are unprepared for the consequences and ill-prepared to take care of their own and their infant's health," he said.
He said nearly half the teenagers who had a baby in 1989 failed to get early prenatal care.
Charles Wesley, who runs the Save the Children Federation's teenage pregnancy prevention program in Appalachia, says many of the teens he counsels simply don't know the consequences of sex.
"They have funny ideas about how you get AIDS or don't get it," he said. "They ask, `Do you get it when you're kissing?' and so forth. I think teens are eager to know, and if they know, they'll act responsibly."
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The National Center for Health Statistics reported these other findings on 1989 births:
- The number of babies born in the United States - 4,040,958 - was the highest number since 1963 and was up 3 percent from the previous year. Early analysis shows births last year were up by another 3 percent.
- Major indicators of the health of mothers and infants showed no improvement in the 1980s. The proportion of underweight newborns rose slightly, to 7 percent of all births, the highest level since 1978.
- Black mothers were more than twice as likely as white mothers to have an underweight baby.
- More than one out of four babies was born to an unmarried mother. That's up 9 percent from 1988.