New Mexico has made a notable progress in decreasing its teenage pregnancy rate. The state's health department has been working with both parents and teenagers to lower teen birth.
Recent data from the New Mexico Department of Health indicated that the birth rate of teens aged between 15 and 19 decreased by 48 percent from 2000 to 2014, Ruidoso News reported. The data means that only 34.3 young women get pregnant per 1,000 people.
Department of Health Secretary Designate Lynn Gallagher said authorities are adamant in making teenagers understand the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy. New Mexico has rolled out several programs to reduce teen birth rates.
New Mexico's Sex Education Programs
Some of those programs are BrdsNBz, which is a text messaging service that can be accessed by both teens and their parents. Teenagers and parents alike will be able to text their inquiries about sexual health to the number 66746, with medically accurate responses to arrive within 24 hours.
There's the Teen Outreach Program, or TOP, as well. This program caters to young people in grades six through 12 and teaches them life skills like communication, community service, decision-making, goal-setting, sexual health, values and building healthy relationships.
Other programs rolled out by New Mexico are From the Playground to the Prom, "¡Cuídate!" and Project AIM, or Adult Identity Mentoring. Aside from reducing teen birth rate, these programs also aim to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, encourage the youth to visualize their future careers and teach the proper use of contraceptives such as the long-acting reversible contraception, or LARC. For at a low price or none at all, low-income or uninsured women and teenagers can access LARC.
Other States Seeing Lower Teen Birth Rate
Arizona's teenage birth rates are declining as well. The state saw 6,623 teen births in 2014, which is a 5,240 decrease since 2004, Tucson News Now reported.
The overall teen birth rate in the United States has been declining, in fact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hispanic and black teens have seen the most notable drop with birth rates plummeting to almost 50 percent since 2006, the Washington Post wrote. In England, teen birth rate has declined by about 50 percent, Mirror noted.
Poverty and underserved rural areas are some of the factors that influence teenage birth rates. Experts, however, said the increasing access to modern contraceptives and the internet has helped teens learn about the most effective forms of contraception to avoid pregnancy. Experts added that teenagers are having less sex or are delaying sexual experimentation, as opposed to the trend observed in past decades.
