Many experts cite Californias comprehensive sex education and guarantees of confidential access to birth control. California law allows anyone under 18 to seek birth control services or the morning-after pill on their own. Minors 12 and older can seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent. And as a result of a California Supreme Court ruling, they can get an abortion without parental consent or notification. But a variety of factors are no doubt at play. Research has even shown that the struggles depicted in MTVs 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom may have prompted some teens to be more vigilant about birth control, according to a 2014 Brookings Report. Abortion rates are falling, too Although the state has among the nations most liberal abortion policies, that doesnt seem to be whats driving the drop in adolescent births. The latest numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights nonprofit, indicate a California abortion rate of just over 16 abortions per every 1,000 women of reproductive age. (There isnt solid data on teen abortion rates). The states overall abortion rate is somewhat higher than the national rate of nearly 14 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 but since 2014, the state abortion rate has declined twice as much as the 8% decline nationwide. Nationwide, the percentage of females ages 15 to 19 receiving an abortion has dropped significantly in the past decade. Theres a long history of California being the beacon state in terms of a strong commitment to family planning and the rights of adolescents to get confidential, nonjudgmental health care around reproductive health, said Claire Brindis, founding director of UC San Franciscos Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. One example is the states Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment program, which gives more than a million low-income Californians free contraceptives and counseling to better understand their family-planning options. The program is available through 2,200 private and public providers, including CSU and UC campus health centers and local community clinics.
Its the gold standard to providing access for folks who dont have insurance as well as for young people who might have insurance but have confidentiality concerns, said Amy Moy of Essential Access Health. She said Californias use of Title X dollars, a federal family-planning grant program created in 1970, also helped drive the states teen birth rate downward by, for instance, helping pay for teen-only hours at family planning clinics. In Fresno County, a nonprofit relied on Title X money to fund a van that gives about 25 teenagers a week free rides to a community health center. They can get birth control, pregnancy testing and STD treatment at the center. Going to the clinic is an experience, said Julio Romero of the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, which runs the program. It can be complicated. It can be scary.
Other factors behind the decline include teens waiting longer to have sex and using more than one form of contraception during sex, according to the California Department of Public Health. Female teenagers nationwide are using contraception more 81% of those interviewed say they used birth control the first time they had sex, according to 2011-2015 data from the National Survey of Family Growth. The percentage has increased from just under 75 % since 2002. More teens are using long-acting, reversible contraceptives such as intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants. And the percentage of female teens who have used the morning-after pill tripled over that time, to nearly 1 in 4. More than half of California high schoolers reported using a condom the last time they had sex, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 30% reported relying on the birth control pill, shot, or IUD the last time they had sex. California law since 2016 has required traditional public schools to provide comprehensive sex education, based on medically accurate facts and that does not mostly stress abstaining from sex. The law was expanded to public charter schools last year. It was the first sex-ed update since 2003, when the state began requiring schools to teach students how to prevent HIV/AIDS.