New York, Feb 4 (ANI): Teen pregnancy in New York City has gone down by 27 percent over the last decade, according to new data reports.
The dip comes as the number of teens having sex has fallen, while the proportion using birth control has gone up, according to numbers to be released by the city Health Department Sunday.
"Two things are happening here - teens are using more contraceptives, and they're also delaying sexual activity," the New York Daily News quoted Health Commissioner Tom Farley as saying.
The city has worked to make it easier for kids to get birth control - giving out condoms at schools and making birth control and the morning-after pill available in some school clinics, a sometimes controversial move.
Farley said the numbers show that strategy is working.
"It shows that when you make condoms and contraception available to teens, they don't increase their likelihood of being sexually active. But they get the message that sex is risky," he said.
For every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19, 72.6 got pregnant in 2010 - down from 98.8 in 2001. The rate was 43.1 for girls 15 to 17 and 114.5 for 18- and 19-year-olds.
There are about 19,080 teen pregnancies a year in the city - down from 24,815 in 2001.
Sexual activity has also dropped by 26 percent - from 50.9 percent to 37.8 percent of public high school students.
More girls were using the Pill or other long-term birth control methods the last time they had sex - 17.3 percent in 2009, up from 26.9 percent in 2011.
Teen pregnancy in the city is still higher than it is nationwide, but it has fallen at a sharper rate, officials said. (ANI)
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