The cause of these welcome changes? Effective and widespread use of contraceptive. Suck it abstinence only education, only the widespread use of contraceptive has been shown to reduce both teen pregnancy, and abortion.

Teen birth rates have dropped yet again, reaching a historic low, and the number of babies being born early or with a low birth weight has also declined, a new U.S. government report shows.

Many factors may account for the improvement, experts say.

“We talk more about teen pregnancy, the responsibility of having a child and how difficult it is to be a teen mom. We also talk about contraception and abstinence more,” explained Dr. Jill Rabin, chief of ambulatory care, obstetrics and gynecology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

“Adults have to remember we’re fighting the adolescent sex drive that developed as a matter of survival of the species,” Rabin said. “It’s important to remember the three I’s when you’re working with teens. They think they’re immortal, invincible and infertile. We have to convince them otherwise and dispel the myths, and the message needs repetition.”

As for the decrease in preterm and low-birth-weight babies, Rabin noted that “prenatal care is getting better, and the message of the importance of prenatal care is getting out there.”(via)

After years of holding steady, new Center for Disease Control data shows that the United States abortion rate has fallen to an all-time low. It dropped 5 percent between 2008 and 2009, the most recent years for which data is available, the largest decline in the past decade.
The big question for public health researchers is: Why? What was different in 2008, that might have lead to this downtick in abortions?

The answers seem to have less to do with economic trends, as some have suggested, and potentially more about the more effective contraceptives women are increasingly using.
The CDC data can tell us a bit of this story. Alongside the drop in the overall number of abortions, the agency also found a decline in the abortion ratio. That figure measures the number of pregnancies terminated for every 1,000 live births. That number dropped too, from 232 in 2008 down to 227 in 2009, a 2 percent decrease. That suggests that the story here isn’t just about fewer pregnancies. We can see in the data that the decisions women make after becoming pregnant are playing a role, with more deciding to continue with the pregnancy rather than terminate.(via)