Story highlights Teen pregnancy numbers are down, but they're having the same amount of sex

Researchers say contraceptive use is behind 36% drop in pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is way down. And a study suggests that the reason is increased, and increasingly effective, use of contraceptives.

From 2007 to 2013, births to teens age 15 to 19 dropped by 36 percent; pregnancies fell by 25 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to federal data (PDF).

But that wasn't because teens were shunning sex. The amount of sex being had by teenagers during that time period was largely unchanged, says the study (PDF), which was published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. And it wasn't because they were having more abortions. Abortion has been declining among all age groups, and particularly among teenagers.

Rather, the researchers from the Guttmacher Institute and Columbia University found that "improvement in contraceptive use" accounted for the entire reduced risk of pregnancy over the five-year period.

"By definition, if teens are having the same amount of sex but getting pregnant less often, it's because of contraception," said Laura Lindberg, the study's lead author and a Guttmacher researcher.

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