TUESDAY Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Most sexually active male American teens say they have no intention of getting a girl pregnant, but more than half also believe it is likely that they will do so within the next six months, a new study finds.

This fatalistic attitude "highlights the need to have a larger conversation about pregnancy, condom use, and what the barriers to condom use might be among male adolescents," said lead researcher Cynthia Rosengard, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, R.I. "We need to help them, so that their actions fall more in line with their plans."

WASHINGTON - U.S. teen pregnancy and birth rates have plummeted to recorded lows as more teenagers delay sex, abstain from it, use contraception and use it more effectively. Abortions also are down.

The decline, to the lowest teen birth rates since national tallies began in 1940, is a remarkable personal health reform, sharper than U.S. declines in smoking or increases in seat-belt use.

Pregnancy and birth rates among teenagers in the United States have declined over the past decade but still remain an endemic public health issue.

Reasons for the decline include increased motivation of youth to achieve higher levels of education, the availability of comprehensive sexuality education in schools, leading to young people's knowledge about contraception, more effective contraceptive use, and improved ability to negotiate contraceptive practice; and greater social support for services related to both pregnancy and disease prevention among adolescents.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate for teens 15-19 decreased 27 percent between 1990 and 1999. After reaching 117 pregnancies per 1,000 females ages 15-19 in 1990, the pregnancy rate has decreased to 86 pregnancies per 1,000 females ages 15-19. The pregnancy data include births, abortions, and miscarriages.

One out of 4 women and one out of 5 men have no knowledge about their sexual partners' history.
Two-thirds of 1,000 women age 18 to 60 knew nothing or very little about STDs (other than HIV/AIDS) in 1995.
The highest at-risk groups are adolescents and gays. African American and Hispanic women are also in the high-risk group.
The rate of unwanted pregnancies and incidence of disease is alarming...