Birth rate for Ohio teens drops to 21-year low

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The state’s birth rate among teenagers has dropped to at least a 21-year low, a trend that experts say reflects less sex and more contraceptives.

Health experts say the declines also suggest that young people are responding to influences such as fear of sexually transmitted diseases and economic anxieties about becoming a parent when money is tight and jobs are scarce, The Dayton Daily News reported Wednesday.

Preliminary data show that the state’s teen birth rate declined for the third straight year, while the national teen birth rate dropped to an all-time low, the newspaper reported.

“I think we are staring square in the face of one of the nation’s real great success stories of the past few decades,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. “A combination of less sex and more contraception is driving the teen birth rate down.”

The Ohio Department of Health reports that the state last year had 34 births among every 1,000 girls between ages 15 and 19, compared with 38.8 births in 2009 and 41 births in 2008. Last year’s rate was the lowest since 1990.