Teen pregnancy on the rise

By Staff
The number and rate of births and pregnancies among teenage girls in Alabama rose in the past two years, reversing a downward trend in the teen pregnancy rate that had held steady for almost a decade.
According to the Center for Health Statistics of the Alabama Department of Public Health, there were an estimated 12,398 pregnancies in Alabama to females ages 10 to 19 for a pregnancy rate of 39.7 in 2007, a rate which is virtually unchanged from the 2006 rate of 39.6. During the years 1996 through 2005 the teen pregnancy rate decreased steadily from 57.1 to 37.5.
The infant mortality rates for teenage mothers in 2007 compared with adult mothers in Alabama made a statistically significant difference, 13.8 for teens versus 9.4 for adult mothers.