NPR⁠84%

Teen birth rates hit another historical low in 2025, CDC says ⁠7%

By Selena Simmons-Duffin⁠0%

4/9/2026, 4:01:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Post Hoc (False Cause), and In-Group Bias, with Indoctrination as the most egregious example at 15.5% saturation with 95 hits. Analysis detected 462 faulty-reasoning hits from 613 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 23.3% and a BS Rank of ⁠7% (20,422 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 93.30% of the article peer group.

The teenage birth rate in the U.S. fell by 7% in 2025, continuing decades of decline, according to a report published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics. 
"A 7% decline is really quite extraordinary," says the report's lead author, Brady Hamilton, a statistician demographer with the center, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
Overall, nearly 126,000 babies were born to mothers ages 15 to 19, according to the analysis of provisional data. 
The birth rate for that age group was 11.7 births per 1,000 females. 
By contrast, the teen birth rate in 1991 was 61.8 births per 1,000. 
The report also explored other topics related to births in the United States. 
The overall birth rate fell 1% from the previous year, also continuing a long decline. 
The rate of preterm births was unchanged. 
And the cesarean delivery rate increased to 32.5% in 2025, which is the highest rate since 2013, continuing a slight upward trend. 
Notably, the provisional report does not include an analysis of births by the mother's race or ethnicity, even though those were included in this report in the last few years. 
CDC told NPR in a statement that this year's report is "covering fewer topics than previous provisional birth reports," but also that race data is still available on CDC's WONDER online database. 
This provisional report comes out every year in the spring based on more than 99% of registered births for the previous year. 
"It gives us basically a sneak peek at some key factors that we can expect when we get the final data for that year," Hamilton says. 
The final data is usually published in August. 
The harder "why" question 
While birth certificates provide a great deal of demographic, geographic and other kinds of detail about a birth, "the birth certificate does not allow us to address the question of why," Hamilton says. 
Many factors are driving the 35-year decline in teen birth rates, says Bianca Allison, pediatrician and associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. 
"What is actually affecting the birth rates are likely lower rates of teen pregnancy overall, which is in the context of higher use of contraception and lower sexual activity for youth, and then also continued access to abortion care," she says. 
While there has been a lot of concern about the declining general birth rate in the U.S., the decline in teen births is harder to parse as a good or bad news story. 
"I think it depends on who you're talking to and how they're positioned and looking at the data," says Allison, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, an advocacy group that favors abortion rights and supports health equity. 
"From my perspective, as somebody who specifically studies the provision of high-quality reproductive health care and access for young people, this should be celebrated as long as this is aligned with what people are actually wanting for themselves." 
She adds that there are a lot of negative narratives associated with teen parenthood in terms of educational and career potential. 
"Many of those outcomes are due to the lack of societal, institutional and systemic supports that young people receive to parent, not their lack of ability to parent," she argues. 
She hopes that the declining teen birth rate doesn't make people think this issue is gone. 
"We cannot get our foot off the gas pedal of continuing to invest in supports" for teen parents to help them reach their goals. 
They need educational, social and medical help to thrive, she says: "All those things are incredibly important." 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 7.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.4%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.6%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 4.9%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 2.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.8%Availability Heuristic4.9%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.4%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.8%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.4%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 6.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 15.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 11.1%Framing Effect6.0%This article: 2.8%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 6.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Loss Aversion2.8%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 3.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.8%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.4%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 2.6%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 3.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%Pessimism Bias2.6%This article: 8.5%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 20.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 11.3%Negativity Bias8.5%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 2.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 4.9%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 3.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Fundamental Attribution Error4.9%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 6.2%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 9.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%In-Group Bias6.2%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 5.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.8%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.7%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 2.1%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.5%Primacy Effect2.1%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 4.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.7%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 6.2%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 10.8%Goats and Soda (NPR): 6.1%Appeal to Authority6.2%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 2.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 7.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.3%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 5.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 4.4%Hasty Generalization0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.7%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 20.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 6.6%Appeal to Emotion0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 3.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.9%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 6.7%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Post Hoc (False Cause)6.7%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.4%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.5%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.4%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.4%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.5%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.3%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.9%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.1%Biased Writer Voice0.0%This article: 15.5%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 2.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.0%Indoctrination15.5%This article: 6.2%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 1.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Politically Left Leaning Bias6.2%This article: 0.0%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 2.8%Selena Simmons-Duffin: 0.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…2.8%

613 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers61%attributed speech239writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 11 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 29 words • 0.0% coverageBrady Hamilton • 31 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 15 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 7 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverageCenters for Disease Control and Prevention • 32 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 0.0% coverageBrady Hamilton • 26 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 8 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageBrady Hamilton • 33 words • 0.0% coverageBianca Allison • 27 words • 0.0% coverageBianca Allison • 41 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 33 words • 0.0% coverageBianca Allison • 38 words • 100.0% coverageBianca Allison • 38 words • 100.0% coverageBianca Allison • 21 words • 0.0% coverageBianca Allison • 30 words • 0.0% coverageBianca Allison • 16 words • 100.0% coverageBianca Allison • 24 words • 100.0% coverageBianca Allison • 17 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Bianca Allison

89%flagged-word coverage
252 attributed words67% of attributed speech33% writer coverage
0%20.0%40.0%Indoctrination+37.7 ptsWriter: 0.0%Bianca Allison: 37.7%37.7%Politically Left Leaning B+15.1 ptsWriter: 0.0%Bianca Allison: 15.1%15.1%Attempt to Sell a Product +6.7 ptsWriter: 0.0%Bianca Allison: 6.7%6.7%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.