For 15 years, the state of Texas has seen a steady decline in teen pregnancies. This is a big deal, as The Lone Star state has remained a place with one of the highest rates of teens giving birth in America. It has also been one of the states with the highest rate of repeat teen pregnancies. For these reasons, a 67 percent decrease in teen pregnancies since 2007 was certainly hailed as an accomplishment.
But now experts are worried as over a decade of progress has come to a halt, and the trend in decline of teen pregnancies is reversing. According to a new report from the University of Houston’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality (WGSS), teen pregnancies, females between the ages of 15 and 19, rose in Texas by 0.4 percent in 2022. A small, but significant data point potentially underscoring the power of the state’s six-week abortion ban, Senate Bill 8, which went into effect in September 2021.
