Teenage fertility rates have increased steadily over the last six years but are still not as high as they were in the early 1970s, according to a new report, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
The rate, which refers to the number of live births per 1,000 in the 15 to 19 age group, stood at 22.4 in 1973 and was down to 18.8 in 2003. This is according to a new Crisis Pregnancy Agency report which points to huge variations in the fertility rate among teenagers across the State.
Highest rates are in Limerick city at 40.9 per 1,000 live births, Dublin city at 32.1 per 1,000 live births, Waterford city at 27.2 per 1,000 live births and Carlow at 26.5 per 1,000 live births.
Lowest rates are in Roscommon at 7.2 per 1,000 live births, Co Galway at 9.9 per 1,000 live births and Sligo at 10.5 per 1,000 live births.
The average teenage fertility rate for the 15 EU member-states prior to enlargement was 13.64, according to the report, which notes the rate in the UK is particularly high at 27.34.
"However, it is important to note that the teenage fertility rate does not take account of abortions. For example, the low teenage fertility rates in Norway and Sweden are partly as a result of the high rates of teenage abortion in these countries.
"Research in other countries has indicated a link between teenage pregnancy and deprivation. Unfortunately there has been little investigation of this aspect of teenage pregnancy in an Irish context," the report said.
Entitled Crisis Pregnancy Agency Statistical Report 2005: Fertility and Crisis Pregnancy Indices, the report states that teenage pregnancy rates in the Republic, while increasing since 1996, are now at the level they were at in 1980.
Looking at abortion, it says there has been a substantial increase in the number of women travelling to the UK for abortions over the last three decades. In 2003 some 6,320 women giving addresses in the Republic had abortions in UK clinics.
The greatest number of abortions since 1975, when UK clinics began collecting data on women giving Irish addresses, has been among women in the 20 to 24 age group.
Meanwhile the report says adoption is no longer seen as an expected or real solution to crisis pregnancy. This is borne out by figures which show the proportion of births outside marriage that result in adoption has declined dramatically over the last 30 years. Whereas in 1976 some 39.5 per cent of births outside marriage resulted in adoption, just 0.5 per cent of such births resulted in adoption by "strangers" in 2002.
In terms of the numbers of children who were actually adopted, there were 1,005 "stranger adoptions" in the Republic in 1976 compared to 99 in 2002.
The proportion of births outside marriage, the report adds, has jumped from 3.2 per cent in 1973 to 31.4 per cent in 2003. The authors say it is likely this change reflects "postponed marriage and a rise in cohabitation".
Most children in the State are now born to women in their early 30s, putting the average age at which women have children in the Republic higher than in other European countries.
"The average age of women at childbearing in the EU was 29.6 in 2002, while in Ireland the average age of women at childbearing was 30.6."