This Is A Must Read article written by Mary Alice Miller of the Our Time Press. Please pass this along to our young kids in the community!
Teens living in Brooklyn are giving birth and terminating pregnancies at numbers higher than almost any borough in the city. According to the recently released N.Y.C. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009, 40 Brooklyn teens under age 15 gave birth, the most in the city; 672 teens, ages 15-17, gave birth – second only to the Bronx; 1,808 teens, ages 18-19 gave birth – the highest teen birth numbers in the city. Brooklyn communities with the highest births to teens are Brownsville, East New York and Bushwick.
Brooklyn teens experienced the most spontaneous terminations (miscarriages) in the city. The highest numbers of induced terminations among teens took place in Brooklyn.
One-hundred thirty-three adolescents under age 15 terminated their pregnancies; there were 1,663 induced terminations among 15-17-year-olds; and 2,586 among 18-19-year-olds. In New York City, the proportion of pregnancies ending in an induced termination is highest among younger women, peaking at about 28 percent at age 30. For women under the age of 25, more pregnancies end in induced termination than in a live birth or spontaneous termination. Of all induced terminations in NYC, the vast majority (88 percent) take place in the first 12 weeks.
According to the NYC Department of Health, induced terminations of pregnancies among all age groups in NYC have gone down since 2000. Since that same year, the birth rate among teens has declined by 27 percent. Teen births accounted for 6.2 percent of all births in 2009.
To read the entire article click this link: Brooklyn Teens Face Reproductive Rights Challenges
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