CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Chicago's teen birth rate further declines to historic low

Chicago Tribune - 5/27/2017

May 26--The city's teen birth rate continues to decline and hit a historic low in 2014, the most recent year city data is available, Chicago officials have announced.

The birth rate in 2014 was 32 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19, or 2,992 live births, representing a steady decrease since 2007, when the birth rate was 66.1. The decrease is even more dramatic compared to the teen birth rate of 80.5 in 2000.

While the local decrease mirrors a national decline of teen births, Chicago's rate is still higher than the national average for 2014 of 24.2 births per 1,000 females. More recent data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a further drop in teen births nationwide to a 22.3 birth rate for 2015 -- another record low.

"Optimally, we'd have zero. We're not there yet so more work needs to be done," said Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Dr. Julie Morita. "We really have made huge strides ... Making sure long-acting contraception is available, doctors are recommending it and teens know to ask for it -- all that will lead to a lower teen birth rate, and it has to be done in every community."

Although the birth rate declined across all races and ethnicities in Chicago in 2014, racial and ethnic disparities exist, with slightly higher rates among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic teens. For example, non-Hispanic blacks had a birth rate of 41 births per 1,000 females while Hispanics had a birth rate of 37.2, much higher than the rate of non-Hispanic white teens at 6.5 and of Asians and Pacific Islanders, at 4.

Chicago communities with higher teen birth rates tend to be on the city's West and South Sides with North Lawndale, West Garfield Park and West Englewood having the highest rates for 2014.

The city's Public Health department has partnered with Planned Parenthood since 2015 on an effort called Chicago Healthy Adolescents and Teens to target communities with high birth rates and high rates of sexually transmitted infections. The program educates teens about STIs and offers students at select schools the option to leave urine samples to be tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases.

So far this school year, more than 12,000 students have been educated and more than 6,500 youth provided with STI screening at more than 40 schools, the city said.

Additionally, there's a citywide approach to educate teens about pregnancy prevention and long-lasting, reversible and effective birth control such as implants in the arm and Intrauterine Devices, also known as IUDs.

Last year, the city launched the chataboutit.org website to provide teens with accurate and reliable sexual health information, complementing the sex education curriculum in Chicago Public Schools classrooms.

The city also encourages condom use. An updated version of the "Chicago Wears Condoms" program rolled out earlier this month. The program, initially launched in 2015, is a citywide social media and marketing campaign with billboards and CTA ads to educate teens about unplanned pregnancies and STIs by providing information on testing sites and where to get free condoms.

Also, Morita said the city is working on creating an app to provide locations of free condom sites using GPS.

She underscored the importance of teens postponing childbirth.

"Becoming a parent early can interfere with educational opportunities," Morita said. "We know girls that get pregnant as teens are less likely to graduate from high school and less likely to go to college and get a college degree."

lvivanco@chicagotribune.com

___

(c)2017 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.