One out of every ten women aged 15 to 19 become pregnant each year in the United States (Data source: click here). Data regarding pregnancy rates gathered from other developed countries clearly shows that the incidence of adolescent pregnancy can be reduced if effective contraceptive and reproductive healthcare are made widely accessible. Although high quality sex education programs that include information about contraception, reproductive biology and responsible sexual behavior can enhance the effectiveness of contraceptive delivery systems, they are not a substitute for the actual provision of services and supplies. One of the great public health challenges of our time has been teenage pregnancies. In recent years, however, teen birth rates in the United States have declined substantially to historic record lows comparatively since the most recent peak in the early 1990s but the U.S. teen birth rate remains higher than in other developed countries. 

I used Data.Gov datasets for ‘Teen Birth Rates for Age Group 15 -19 in the United States by County’ to understand trends in the teen birth rates across different states in the US. Abortion has been a hotly contested societal phenomenon in America’s landscape for the past half a decade, dividing up the census with “pro-life” people on one side seeking to restrict abortions availability, and “pro-choice” people on the other, opposing government restrictions on abortion. The topic of abortion has been linked with the economic, political and religious undertones of the US demographic. Teenage pregnancies are a major driver for abortion discourse so it is my prime focus for this report. Through the data compiled, I  want to understand which state has the highest and the least birth rate and if the trends deciphered relates to abortion laws surrounding the states.

Tools Used

• Data that has been used here is from Data.Gov. The data contains county-based teen birth concerning 15 – 19-year-olds across all the states in the US in the year 2020.
• Geolocation coordinates from Opendatasoft to use for GIS mapping purposes. 
• Microsoft Excel to organize and delete unwanted data.
• ArcGIS to create a map to visualize the data.

Methodology

• In the beginning of the data process, I used the Teen Birth Rates for Age Group 15 -19 in the United States by County in 2020 dataset. In order to match the county geolocation coordinates with the table containing all the birth rates by county, I joined the tables with an identifier which is created using the county name and the state name, and using the VLOOKUP functionality in Excel I was able to get the coordinates as well as the birth rates alongside the state and county in one file.

• After this process was done, I decided to import the csv file to ArcGIS to visualize the data in the form of a map. In ArcGIS, apart from the two layers (the base map and the data), I added another Sketch layer in order to highlight the geographical area that has the highest teen birth in 2020 in the US. This is done by creating a polygon shape. I have also added another Sketch layer to add Key Points in order to show which particular counties/states have the highest teen birth rate through pin drops. I have used Birth Rate per 1000 people as the attribute for the map, as this is the key attribute I wanted to show on the map. Pop up messages are also messages to let viewer know which geo points has the least and highest teen birth in the US.

Interpretation

Before Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, there were several factors that affected abortion regulations. In the southern and midwestern states, anti abortion groups and conservative leaders who are against abortion make it extremely hard to get access to the safe abortion procedures by incorporating laws such as the law prohibiting abortions after cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound, around six weeks gestation , known as the ‘Heartbeat Bill’. Other factors include defunding of Planned Parenthood in many states , which effectively puts a stop to services regardless of how many clinics are open in the state. All this combined with general religious and societal stigma revolving abortion taught to the youth results in detriment to the progress made in reproductive healthcare.

From the visualization it is clear that the highest birth rates among teenagers , highlighted in the polygon shape, is happening in Southern states such as Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Some of the counties that has highest birth rates are, Todd (South Dakota) – 81.30, Jackson (South Dakota) – 78.90, Crockett (Texas) – 62.90, Throckmorton (Texas) – 61.00. The states with least teen birth rates are Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Some of the counties that have the lowest birth rates are, Hampshire (Massachusetts) – 1.30, Norfolk (Massachusetts) – 1.60, Hunterdon (New Jersey) – 1.80, Centre (Pennsylvania) –  2.00.

According to the Center For Reproductive Rights, currently in 2022 after Roe v Wade was overturned, the states that have completely banned abortions are Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota and other states as well. Some of the states that have not banned abortions are New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Data clearly indicates that these are the states that have either always supported or made it extremely hard for the people to get access to the abortions. Teen pregnancy and childbearing are associated with increased social and economic costs with immediate and long-term effects on teen parents and their children. Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school (Data source: click here).

Please click here for the data visualization I have created for this purpose.

Conclusion

From my analysis, I’ve been able to conclude that the mentality or freedom states instill in its residents have long standing effects on the reproductive health of its youth. Even prior to the pullback of Roe v Wade, it’s apparent that some southern and midwestern states were always opposed to the concept of legal abortions. Laws and regulations have been systematically put into place over decades to ensure the futility of abortion service seekers which also reflects the attitude of the state governments concerning protecting childrens health and their futures.

After getting an idea which states have the highest and lowest teen births, in the future I would like to know more about what happened before Roe v Wade was overturned, How fast did states adopt abortion laws? How did the abortion rates change over past 20 years and How does income and education of communities affect abortion rates. I would like to use various datasets and accumulate and visualize and get an understand about this specific standpoint.