The Nation : Teen-Age Pregnancies Up

The pregnancy rate among girls ages 15 to 19 rose 8.2% between 1974 and 1980, federal health officials reported, although the number of births to mothers in that age group fell 7.3% in that period. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, in a report titled “Teen-age Pregnancy and Fertility in the United States,” said the higher pregnancy rate “probably reflects the increase in the percentage of never-married 15-to-19-year-olds with premarital sexual experience” and cautioned that the U.S. pregnancy and fertility rates in that age group “remain among the highest in the developed world.”