Latina Teens Defy Decline in Birthrates

Bucking a national trend toward declining teen birthrates, young Latinas are bearing children at higher rates than any other ethnic group, according to 1995 figures released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Soaring birthrates among teens of Mexican origin propelled the increase. These teens gave birth at more than twice the rate of the nation’s teens as a whole and more than three times the rate of white teenagers, according to the report.

The 1995 survey of births by ethnicity marks the first time that the childbearing level for Latina teens has surpassed that of blacks. From 1989 to 1995, births to Latina teenagers rose 32% even as teen birthrates declined among non-Latina black and white teens.

For Southern California and other areas with dense concentrations of Latinos, the new figures support projections of potentially explosive population growth, not only because of this group’s high birthrate but also because childbearing at a young age means generations are more closely spaced. California was the birthplace of 37% of those Latinos born in the United States during 1995.

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Demographers have projected that California’s Latinos, who now constitute 30% of the state’s population, will become an absolute majority by 2040 thanks to a combination of heavy immigration and high birthrates.

Women of Mexican origin from 15 to 19 years of age gave birth in 1995 at a rate of 125 children per 1,000 women. The comparable figure was 39 for non-Latina white teenagers and 99 for blacks.

According to the NCHS report, the number of babies born nationwide to women of Latino descent has risen every year since 1989. In that year, 14% of all babies born in the United States were Latino. By 1995, that figure had risen to 18%. On average, according to the report, women of Mexican origin have 3.3 children, compared with 1.8 for non-Latina whites and 2.2 for non-Latina blacks.

The National Center for Health Statistics, which prepared the report issued Thursday, is the statistical arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is the nation’s most authoritative tracker of health and fertility rates.

Analysts there suggested that the high rate of births to Latinas reflected more than a propensity toward early childbearing. Latinas report that a relatively high proportion of their pregnancies are wanted, and those who have unplanned pregnancies are reluctant to seek abortions.

While these trends are apparent among all subgroups of Latinas, they are strongest among women of Mexican origin--a population that is much larger than those from Puerto Rico, Cuba and South and Central America.

In addition, Latinas in 1995 had a lower rate of contraceptive use (59%) than non-Latina whites (66%) and blacks (62%). Investigators, however, uncovered one seeming contradiction: The rise in Latina birthrates comes at a time when rate of contraceptive use among this group has been on the rise.

Among health care providers operating in Los Angeles’ Latino communities, the news of the rising teen birthrates came as little surprise. But clinic directors such as Chiyo Maniwa, director of Project NATEEN in Hollywood, say its causes are as varied as the population itself.

Maniwa cited cultural preferences for larger families, the role of the Catholic Church in discouraging contraception and abortion, and economic and educational obstacles that prompt some Latinas to choose early childbearing.

She added that many teens served by her organization have suffered from disruptions in their family relationships, with parents having left them behind as children to seek work in the United States

“Many of our teens are very isolated, their family connections are very loose or limited,” said Maniwa. “Some whose mothers came first, they were left in South America and are not bonded.”

In 1995, 21% of babies born to non-Latina white women of all ages were born out of wedlock, while 70% of children born to non-Latina black women were born outside of marriage.

Latinas ranged between these two poles, with 38% of Mexican-origin children, 44% of Central and South American children and 60% of Puerto Rican children born out of wedlock.

The study also reported a “dramatic increase in timely prenatal care” among Latinas, up 19% from 1989 to 1995. It noted that this improvement left Latina mothers at a level of prenatal care similar to that of blacks and well below that of non-Latina whites.

While one clinic director in Los Angeles hailed that advance, she warned that the trend may have reversed since 1995. Alice Heidy, executive director of the Clinica Para Las Americas in Los Angeles, said many immigrant women have been scared to seek early prenatal care out of a growing fear that their immigration status could be affected or that they would be required to pay back past Medi-Cal expenses.

The 1996 welfare reform bill barred immigrants who had entered the country legally after August 1996 from access to publicly funded health and welfare benefits. Some regional offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and of the California Department of Health Services have sought to enforce such strictures on legal immigrants who arrived before that point as well.