Teen Pregnancy

After dropping steeply for a decade-and-a-half, America's teen birth rate began edging upwards in the past few years. Analysts aren't sure whether the trend will last and say there are numerous causes. A significant factor, however, is a drop-off in contraceptive use that began in the early 2000s, as better HIV/AIDS treatments diminished fear of the disease. In 2009, the Obama administration ended the Bush administration policy of federally funding only sex-education programs with abstinence until marriage as the primary focus. Instead, most funding will now go to programs that have been demonstrated in large, randomized trials to be effective for pregnancy prevention. Critics say the plan will unfairly eliminate funding for abstinence programs, which they contend have not been adequately evaluated by researchers and are the only ones that consistently teach the value of committed relationships.