I was a bit confounded by this, from KUOW radio…
Teen pregnancy is down in Washington State. That’s the good news. The bad news is pregnancy rates among young teens have gone up.
Hm. Here’s what the state says is actually happening (see the spreadsheets for Table 1/Table 2 for actual data):
There was the teensiest of upticks between 2002 and 2003, but the longer-term trend is looking very good—young teen pregnancies declined by about 40% between 1997 and 2003. Now, I have no quibble with the state program—aimed at reducing young teen pregnancy—that KUOW is reporting on. And I hope I’m not nit-picking. But there’s no real reason to declare that pregnancy rates among young teens are rising when the evidence doesn’t really warrant it. (Thanks to Sightline intern Jessica Branom-Zwick for the heads up.)
