JUST THE FACTS Teen pregnancy

Each year, almost 1 million teen-agers -- 10 percent of all women age 15 to 19, and 19 percent of those who have had sexual intercourse -- become pregnant.
The overall U.S. teen-age pregnancy rate declined 17 percent between 1990 and 1996, from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women age 15 to 19, to 97 per 1,000.
Seventy-eight percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned, accounting for about one-quarter of all accidental pregnancies annually.
PREGNANCY OUTCOMES
More than half (56 percent) of the 905,000 teen-age pregnancies in 1996 ended in births (two-thirds of which were unplanned).
Twenty percent of the decline in the overall teen-age pregnancy rate in the early- to mid-1990s is because of decreased sexual activity, but 80 percent is due to more effective contraceptive practice.
CHILDBEARING
Thirteen percent of all U.S. births are to teens.
About one in five infants born to unmarried minors are fathered by men five or more years older than the mother.
Teens now account for 31 percent of all births outside marriage, down from 50 percent in 1970.
CHILDREN OF TEEN MOTHERS
Teens who give birth are much more likely to come from poor or low-income families (83 percent) than are teens who have abortions (61 percent) or teens in general (38 percent).
Seven in 10 teen mothers complete high school, but they are less likely than women who delay childbearing to go on to college.
One-third of pregnant teens receive inadequate prenatal care; babies born to young mothers are more likely to be low-birth-weight, have childhood health problems and be hospitalized than are those born to older mothers.
ABORTION
Nearly four in 10 teen pregnancies (excluding those ending in miscarriages) are terminated by abortion.
There were about 274,000 abortions among teens in 1996.
Twenty-nine states have mandatory parental involvement laws in effect for a minor seeking an abortion.
Sixty-one percent of minors who have abortions do so with at least one parent's knowledge; 45 percent of parents are told by their daughter.
Source: www.agi-usa.org/ pubs/fb_teen_sex.html