Teenage Pregnancy

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy has become a common occurrence in American society.¹ Although there has been a decline in the total national birth rate, the proportion of deliveries by adolescents (age 11 to 18 years old) increased from 17 per cent in 1966 to 19 per cent in 1975. Today, one in five births is to a woman 18 years of age or younger. The pattern of early pregnancy is shifting; births to older teenagers have decreased but births to mothers 15 to 17 years old have increased 22 per cent, with the peak occurring at the age of 16.² Early pregnancy . . .