COLUMBIA (WACH) -- The US teen birth rate continues to show a long-term downward trend according to the latest report released by the Centers for Disease Control.
That trend is the same here in South Carolina. The report shows a decrease in the number of births per thousand females ages 15 to 19 from 2008 to 2009. The number went down from 53 to 49.1.
According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control there were over 10,000 teen births in the state in 2008. The specific data for 2009 has not been released.
"It's an area where South Carolina has really struggled," says Director of Research and Evaluation Shannon Flynn at the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "We have stayed that high for the last several years, and I think what it says about South Carolina is that we need to really recommit ourselves to protecting our young people."
Despite the good news of a decline, the data shows state trends much higher than the national rate of 39.1 per thousand births in 2009. That puts the nation at the lowest teen birth rate since that information has been collected over the past 70 years.
From the early to mid 1990s, the teen birth rate fell by more than one-third but then jumped up for two years before dropping again.
The state with the lowest teen birth rate is New Hampshire with 16.4 teen births per thousand in 2009.
Health officials say there is a particular concern in pregnant teens giving birth to underweight babies, or even the increased risk of death.
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