Teenage pregnancies on the rise

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute , seven percent of girls 15-19 years old in the United States get pregnant.

The latest numbers come from 2006 when for the first time in more than a decade teen pregnancy rates climbed by three percent.

In the 1990's fewer and fewer girls got pregnant every year. That is why experts like Margaret Lawrence Banning with Planned Parenthood of Indiana are concerned about the sharp increase in 2006.

"We don't know if this is a trend upward or just that statistics have reached a plateau," Lawrence Banning said.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana says this latest study proves current ideas of sex education are not working. Researchers too blame a push in recent years for abstinence-only education. However, advocates for abstinence say education goes beyond the classroom.

"It has to be something that's really enforced at home. Parents, for example, [should] exert supervision of their young people and... make sure that the peers they are associating with also share the same values," Fred Everett with the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese said.

Planned Parenthood says abstinence is a good base in sex education but students should know alternatives like using birth control and condoms. Members of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese say that sends a mixed message.

"You wouldn't tell someone, for example, 'Don't use drugs.' But then you wouldn't say, 'But if you're going to do it, here's a way to do it safely," Everett said.

Nationally, Indiana and Ohio are close in rank for teen pregnancies. Indiana is 26th in the country while Ohio is 28th.