I wonder if these figures include inner city girls from out of state who come here to have their babies. Adoption agencies bring girls here because Utah laws make it easier to place babies without paternity issues. I don't know how many come here to give birth each year, but it may be enough to skew the numbers, making Utah's unwed birthrate look worse than it really is.

Sensational news: Utah ranks relatively high among rates of teenage mothers. (I can see people in other states murmuring and speculating about this).

How many of those people in other states will read far enough to see that Utah also ranks 50th in ratio of births to unmarried mothers?

The obvious conclusion is that many young women in Utah marry at an early age and have babies before they are 20. That's a lot better than what they're doing here in the Bay Area, where in some communities infants are just as likely to be raised by grandparents as their own mothers, and seldom by both of their own natural parents.

I belive that the key number in this report is that Utah ranks 50, that is dead last, in the number of live births to unwed teens. This is exactly what this number should be but I doubt that anyone will take the time to really read and understand the data.

"How many of those people in other states will read far enough to see that Utah also ranks 50th in ratio of births to unmarried mothers?"

Look at yourself.

When, I read this I ask: how many of these marriages that were generated by pregnancies last? Would it be better to grow up in a stable adoptive home or rised in a unstable marriage with children for your parents who will have a diminished role in the economy?

I imagined Utah to be higher. Most of these girls receive very little sex education because they are taught simply to avoid it at all costs.

Sorry to hear that your bigoted misconceptions about Utah and Mormons were wrong, but it's understandable given that's usually the result of getting all your information about teen births from the left-leaning LameStreamMedia.

FYI, despite recent "studies" that show abstinence education to be ineffective in reality aggressive birth control education and distribution programs are even less effective. Some of the highest teen birthrates in the US are found in urban areas where condom distribution programs are the norm.

Which brings up another politically-incorrect secret about teen pregnancies: The overwhelming majority of them occur in minority communities.

The heart-rending stereotype of an upper-middle-class white cheerleader being forced to give up college because her quarterback boyfriend refused to wear a condom or simply didn't have one is largely incorrect.

DO these stats take into account that there are fewer abortions in UTah?

that would certainly affect the LIVE birthrate.

Kinda blows that ignorant theory out of the water, now doesn't it?

Wow, in a world as complex as ours, with a myriad of variables to consider, it is pretty simplistic to account for birth rates by using only one variable (abstinence education). But go right on ahead if that makes you feel more "enlightened" than the rest of us.

I had the same thought as MC,,,,,,,,,,,do they count them??????