ATLANTA — A growing number of teen girls say they use the rhythm method for birth control, and more teens also think it’s OK for an unmarried female to have a baby, according to a government survey released Wednesday. The report may help explain why the teen pregnancy rate is no longer dropping like it was.
In the 2006-08 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 17 percent of sexually experienced teen girls said they had used the rhythm method — timing their sex to prevent getting pregnant by avoiding fertile days. That’s up from 11 percent in 2002. The increase is worrisome because the rhythm method doesn’t work about 25 percent of the time, said Joyce Abma, lead author of the report.
The teen birth rate declined steadily from 1991 through 2005 but rose from 2005 to 2007. It dropped again in 2008 to about 10 percent of all births.
Nearly 64 percent of teen boys said it’s OK for an unmarried female to have a child, up from 50 percent in 2002. More than 70 percent of teen girls agreed, up from 65 percent, though the female increase was not statistically significant.
