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Survey Says: Teen Pregnancy and Religion Go Hand-in-Hand

Pregnant NunA recent survey in the Journal of Reproductive Health says that there is a DIRECT CORRELATION BETWEEN RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING AND A HIGHER LEVEL OF TEEN PREGNANCIES.

The study is entitled “Religiosity and Teen Birth Rate in the United States“.

For this report, the CDC took data from two different studies – one on the levels of teen birth rates, and the other on a religion spread across the US.

The teen birth rate study took into account both income levels and abortion rates for various communities.

Part of the religion survey determined how religious respondents were by how many agreed with strong religious-based questions (such as Scripture).  The more respondents that agreed, the higher the level of religious adherence there was in the that area.

Putting these two  studies together, the conclusion is that higher teen birth rates are strongly influenced by conservative religious beliefs, most likely due to some religions’ strong opposition to birth control.

With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by income or abortion rates.

One possible explanation for this relationship is that teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception.

Religiosity and teen birth rate in the United States