Texas Has Highest Teen Repeat Birth Rate

DALLAS (AP) _ A new report says Texas has the highest rate of repeat teen births of any state at 23 percent.

The report by Washington-based research group Child Trends says that among 73 major U.S. cities in 2006, Dallas had the highest repeat percentage of repeat teen births at 28 percent.

San Antonio had a repeat teen birth rate of 26 percent. Fort Worth’s was at 25 percent and Houston and Austin each had a repeat teen birth rate of 24 percent. El Paso was at 21 percent and Arlington was at 19 percent.

The year is the most recent for which city-level data are available. It;s the sixth consecutive year that Texas had the highest repeat rate of any state. This is the first time the group has ranked cities.

Texas did improve from having the highest teen birth rate in 2005 to the third highest in 2006.

Texas also leads the states in the number of girls under 15 giving birth and Houston leads cities.

A study by the Texas Freedom Network earlier this year found 94 percent of Texas schools don’t give students any sex education beyond urging abstinence.

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