• Substantially higher in the U.S. than in other western industrialized nations

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• 194,377 babies were born to women aged 15-19 in 2017

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• Birth rates fell 10% for women aged 15-17 years and 6% for women 18-19 years since 2016

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• There are significant differences in teen birth rates across racial and ethnic groups, geographic regions, rural and urban areas, and age groups.   

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• Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood are associated with social, health and financial costs to teen parents, families and states. 

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• Only about half of teen mothers earn a high school diploma by age 22, compared to 90 percent of women without a teen birth.

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"Teen Pregnancy Prevention", 2018" 

• Adolescent parenthood: primarily women and men nineteen years or younger who give birth to and elect to parent a child. (Encyclopedia.com, n.d.).

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• Teenage pregnancy: a pregnancy that occurs for a woman under the age of 20. Although technically not a teenager, a young woman 12 or under who is pregnant falls into this definition of teenage pregnancy as well. (American Pregnancy Association, n.d.).

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• Contraception: the deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse. (Dictionary.com, n.d.).

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• Adoption: the action or fact of legally taking another's child and bringing it up as one's own, or the fact of being adopted. (Dictionary.com, n.d.).

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• Abortion: the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. (Dictionary.com, n.d.).