Bad economy means fewer babies, but is abortion to blame?

The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has fallen to a historic low, falling ten percent in just one year. Experts attribute the trend to the poor economy. They also noted that birth rates for older women were up slightly.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to government statistics, aggregated by the Centers for Disease Control, the birth rate for U.S. teens fell ten percent to 26.6 births per 1,000 teens ages 15-19. Births among younger girls, ages 10-14 dropped to 0.3 per 1,000.

Experts are attributing this decline to better education and awareness as well as to the long-running recession from which Main Street can't seem to recover. As family incomes drop, so too do birth rates.

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There is also a likely correlation between contraceptives and abortifacients their ease of access for children, despite public, moral and health objections to such practices. The government statistics did not cite a reason for the decline.

Is abortion to blame for the decline in the American birth rate?

Thankfully, the abortion rate is the lowest is has been since 1973. However, this silent form of killing has simply moved from the clinic to over-the-counter as various abortifacients and chemical contraceptives become readily available to women, even children. This was not mentioned in the report but is probably a significant factor in the present decline, at least as much as the economy.

Other statistics gathered over the long term show a correlation between macroeconomic factors and birth rates, even though correlation is not causation. Demographers have pointed out that dips in the nation's economy are pegged to drops in birthrates. Women are also delaying marriage, home buying and pregnancy as macroeconomic changes occur.

While the majority of births in the nation have been to women in their 20s, an ever-growing percentage of women are having children in their 30s. The birth rate for women having children after 40 is also on the rise, going up by about 1 percent per year for women between 40 and 44.

The CDC report was aggregated from statistics gathered from 1940 through 2013.

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