ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico has a stubborn problem: its persistent ranking at or near the top in the nation when it comes to teen pregnancies.
A new legislative analysis suggests that the state Health Department in collaboration with other agencies develop a comprehensive plan to reduce teen births. It also recommends the Legislature continue to invest in programs such as early childhood education that support the futures of teen parents and their children.
While the birth rates in New Mexico are declining – by 35 percent during the last decade – like the rest of the nation, the state’s overall ranking hasn’t budged.
The analysis recommends lawmakers direct the Health Department to identify communities with higher teen births as priorities, setting ambitious yet feasible targets for reducing teen births and a plan for coordinating and delivering services.
The report, which was presented earlier this month to the Legislative Finance Committee, says current efforts are fragmented and that health officials need to work with the Human Services, Children, Youth and Families and Public Education departments to come up with concrete strategies to curb teen pregnancies.
Teen pregnancies have “all sorts of cascading effects,” said Mark Williams, the director of the Health Department’s public health division, adding that he agrees with the Legislative Finance Committee’s report’s findings. “We see this as a winnable battle.”
The Health Department could implement the ideas without a change in the law.
Statistically, the children born to teenagers “are more likely to live in poverty, enter school behind their peers, experience maltreatment, and become incarcerated than children born to older parents,” the report says.
In the long-term, the study says, these children will cost taxpayers $84 million annually because of Medicaid costs associated with their births, increased reliance on public assistance, and poor educational outcomes.
Officials found that teen births are concentrated in certain geographic regions, among older teen populations, and among teens who are already parents.
The number of births to adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 in New Mexico declined from 4,469 in 2005 to 2,980 in 2013, according to the legislative report. Children born to teen parents account for 11 percent of all births in the state, and 17- and 18-year-old mothers account for 70 percent of all teen births.
Birth rates varied by county. But they were higher in rural areas, a trend also seen nationwide.
A report by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy that was released this month says the teen birth rate in 2010 in rural counties was nearly one-third ahead when compared to the rest of the country, surpassing the rates in suburban counties and in major metropolitan centers.
