Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Cincinnati's teen pregnancies fall
Rate down 23 percent in 5 years
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati's teen pregnancy rate dropped 23 percent from 1991 to 1996, in part because some local programs have effectively reduced the number of subsequent births to one-time teen mothers.
The decrease is the eighth-largest of the nation's 50 biggest cities, according to a Kids Count study, “Teen Childbearing in America's Largest Cit ies,” which was released Monday.
In Cincinnati, the number of births to mothers ages 15-19 decreased from 1,428 in 1991 to 1,094 in 1996. The 50 largest cities, including Cincinnati, saw a 13 percent drop in their collective rate in that time, while the country had a 5 percent decrease.
“While large urban centers have often been seen as the least promising places for positive change (for) our country's young people, big cities have been leading the reduction in teen-age childbearing,” said William O'Hare, director of Kids Count.
Kids Count is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based charitable organization dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged children in the United States.
“Our nation's cities may have vital information about what is working and why,” Mr. O'Hare said Monday.
Teen pregnancy is often a major indicator of related social problems, say social scientists. Teen births are more likely to result in poorer health for both mother and child, and teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school and receive welfare.
But a teen mother's chances to succeed are better if she has only one child. Studies show single-child teen mothers are more likely to complete a high school education, receive job training and have a shorter stay on welfare — or possibly avoid it in the first place.
Despite the apparent good news for Cincinnati in the Kids Count report, the city still has the 34th-highest rate of teen pregnancy among the 50 largest cities — 91 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19 — a rate worse than Detroit and Philadelphia and only slightly better than Chicago.
“I believe there has been an awful lot of work by a lot of people in a lot of areas to bring this number down,” said Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock. “The message has been sent out consistently that involvement in sex and pregnancy at an early age are not good things and that it requires not only caring for a child but limits your options.”
But Dr. Adcock says only part of the message is getting through.
Tristate teen-agers are catching and spreading chlamydia and gonorrhea at such rapidly increasing rates that Cincinnati has soared to the top of all Ohio cities for both sexually transmitted diseases (STD).
Statewide, chlamydia rates have climbed 25 percent in three years. Gonorrhea rates rose 14 percent, according to reports from the Ohio Department of Health.
But in Cincinnati, the rates have doubled.
Bernice Washington is director of SUMA, a Cincinnati-based agency trying to combat teen pregnancy. She is also concerned about the rising STD rate.
SUMA operates several programs:
• Assertive and Responsible Teen (ART) targets boys and girls in the fourth grade and up and attempts to help them learn to make smart decisions and encourages abstinence until marriage as a first option.
• One and One is a program that works with first-time teen mothers to help them avoid second or third pregnancies.
“Most girls realize now that it's not the end of the world to have a child and that their chances of being successful are better if they don't have another child,” Ms. Washington said.
• SUMA recently was awarded a grant to begin a young fathers program, Families Need Fathers, that shows them the importance of bonding with their child and avoiding fathering another child in terms of financial support.
Although the Kids Count study analyzes only data from Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky is also showing a decrease in teen births.
At the Brighton Center in New port, the New Chance Program has succeeded in helping more than 30 of 40 one-child teen mothers to avoid subsequent pregnancies, said Melissa Hall, family center director.
And in four years, the 202 participants in Brighton Center's Youth Leadership Development Program have experienced only one pregnancy, Ms. Hall said.
“We try to empower them and help them gain control of their lives,” she said.
Nationally, according to the Kids Count study, the teen birth rate has dropped from 62 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19 in 1991 to 54 in 1996.
All major race and ethnic groups also showed decreases, led by a 22 percent decrease for African-American teens (116 to 91 births per 1,000 teens).
In 1996, Hispanic teens had the highest rate (102 births per 1,000 teens).
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