Report: More than half of Latinas pregnant before 20

By Moni Basu
CNN
(CNN) - She had many plans for the future: to go to college, start a career, meet the man of her dreams, raise a family - when the time was right.

It was all cut off by an unexpected pregnancy. The baby became her life, consuming her energy and forcing her dreams to the back burner of her life.

She is 20 or younger. And already has had her first baby.

National teen pregnancy rates have plummeted by one-third since the 1990s, but the overall teen birth rate is rising again after 14 years of decline. Latino teens have the highest rate of teen pregnancy and births among all racial and ethnic groups with more than half of young Latinas carrying a child before the age of 20.

Latina birth rates have declined half as fast as black or white teens', according to a new survey released Tuesday by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Hispanic advocacy group National Council of La Raza. The survey reveals pregnancy rates among young Latinas at twice the national average.

"There's a big disconnect between pregnancy rates and what Latina families want and value," said Ruthie Flores, senior manager of the National Campaign's Latino Initiative.

Latino girls and women yearn to graduate from college and have successful lives, but the reality is that many are hampered by unexpected pregnancies, Flores said.

Latina teens tend to wait to for their "sexual debut," Flores said, but once they become active, they are less prone to using contraception than other teen girls. It is also socially acceptable for Latinas to date older men, Flores said.

She said the biggest influence on Latinas are their parents and, despite a rich culture and the growing influence of Hispanics in America, the Latino community disproportionately suffers from troubling social indicators, the National Campaign survey found.

Consider that fewer than six in 10 Latino adults in the United States have a high school diploma. Latino teens are more likely to drop out than their non-Hispanic counterparts, and of all the children living in poverty, 30 percent are Latino.

"Teen pregnancy is not an isolated issue," Flores said. "It's related to poverty, to dropout rates. That's going to have an impact on our national as a whole."
Flores said 69 percent of Latino teen moms drop out of high school, while the children of teen mothers are less likely to do well in school themselves and often repeat grades.

"That has a big economic impact," Flores said.

It's an impact that is sure to be noticed. By 2025, one-quarter of all American teens will be Latinos.