10:
That’s the percentage that teen pregnancies dropped between 2013 and 2014 in South Carolina, according to state data. In fact, the state’s teen birth rate has declined 61 percent since peaking in 1991, the S.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy said in a release quoting from state Department of Health and Environmental Control data. Since 1991, declines have been most dramatic among African American females aged 15 to 17 whose birth rate dropped 77 percent.
“It is fair to say we have done a great job in our state educating young people about the importance of delaying pregnancy,” said Campaign CEO Forrest Alton. “There’s been a great deal of energy and focus in South Carolina around an abstinence message, which of course is the first and best choice for all teens. We are also getting better at providing age-appropriate contraception for those youth who are having sex. This is the magic formula required to reduce teen pregnancy, less sex and more contraception.”
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!