Regis Duvignau/Reuters
The teen birth rate is now less than one-third what it was at its height in 1957. Back then, 96.3 out of every 1,000 teenage girls gave birth, while today it is 26.6. The drop in teen birth rates meant roughly 4 million fewer births to teenagers during the past 20 years. The largest recorded declines between 1991 and 2012 were for non-Hispanic black teenagers. According to officials, this saved taxpayers in 2010 alone $12 billion as teen mothers usually depend on food stamps, Medicaid, and other forms of welfare. Officials tied the decline to increased effective contraception like birth control, as well as less sex, potentially due to fears of HIV. "Pregnancy was often seen as the girl's problem," Bill Albert, the chief program officer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, said. "HIV, not so much."