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The article by Santelli and colleagues [[1]] in this issue of the Journal shines a spotlight on an enduring American challenge: adolescent childbearing. After well over a decade of progress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that for the second year in a row, the nation's teen birth rate (TBR) increased. Between 2005 and 2006, a 3.5% increase was noted; for the 2006 to 2007 interval, the increase was 1.4%, suggesting that what began as a 1-year uptick may have become a trend. This discouraging news reversed a decline in teen births that began in 1991 when the TBR was 61.8; by 2005 it had decreased to 40.5 [[2]]. The authors do note that abortion does not appear to be an important factor in the recent changes in the TBR, which is a point worth stressing.
