County teen birth rates down

Step Up St. Joseph County celebrated National Teen Pregnancy-Prevention Month by highlighting the county’s dramatic decrease in teen birth rates.
According to Rebecca Burns, Health Officer for the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency and member of the Step Up St. Joseph County initiative, enormous progress in reducing teen pregnancy has been made.
During 2014, 62 St. Joseph County teenage girls between 15 and 19 years became pregnant and had babies. The figure is down from 129 teens in the same age group 10 years ago.
Still, birth rates for rural St. Joseph County remain 43 percent higher than those reported for Michigan, Burns added.