Drop in Pregnancy, Birthrates May Not Add Up to Trend

By Millicent Lawton

New federal figures that show a drop in pregnancy and childbirth rates among young women may represent hope but not salvation for those seeking to curb teenage pregnancy, experts said last week.

Two separate reports released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show an apparent reversal of the trend of rising teenage pregnancy and birthrates that began in the late 1980s.

And the numbers show that the birthrate among unmarried women, including unmarried teenagers, leveled off between 1991 and 1993, the most recent year for...