The AP reports that fewer teens are engaging in sex, which is certainly a good thing, but they miss one of the most significant results from the National Center for Health Statistics report on "Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, 2002".
Among Hispanic teen males the percent declined from 61 to 55 percent; among non-Hispanic white teen males it declined from 50 to 41 percent; and most remarkably, non-Hispanic black teen males’ levels of sexual experience declined 17 percentage points, from 80 to 63 percent. Some of these groups that are now showing changes between 1995 and 2002 did not show changes in the earlier time interval, between 1988 and 1995 (non-Hispanic black and Hispanic males aged 18–19 years). However, the youngest male teens and non-Hispanic black teen males have declines in sexual experience of fully 19 and 17 percentage points, respectively, between 1988 and 2002.
This is clearly good news for the black community, which struggles with a high illegitimacy rate (up to 75% of black children are born to unmarried women) and a high abortion rate.
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