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近年美国的人口出生率持续走低 Fertility rates in the United States are continuing their decades-long decline, due in large part to a steep slide in teenage pregnancies down to historic lows, according to a new government report released recently. 美国政府近期发布的工作报告指出，美国的人口出生率几十年来持续走低，很大程度上是由于青少年怀孕率大幅下滑至历史新低的缘故。 ? The National Center for Health Statistics said the pregnancy rate of 102 pregnancies out of every 1,000 women is 12 percent below the 1990 peak of about 116 per 1,000. Only once in the past 30 years, 1997, has it been lower, and only marginally, the center said. ? Since 1990, the report said, pregnancy rates are down in almost every category. The only exception is among women over 30, whose pregnancy rate has increased steadily with every passing year. But the rate is declining among women in their 20s, who form the single largest group of pregnant women, and among teenagers of all races and ethnicities. The abortion rate also has dropped, reflecting a continuous slide since peaking in 1990. ? The report only examined the trajectory of pregnancy rates through 2009, stopping there because more recent data on abortions is not available yet. But newer statistics on birth rates suggest thedecline is continuing, though not as quickly as it did in recent years when the recession accelerated trends well underway. ? Women already were having fewer children than women of their parents and grandparents generations, so those under 30 could postpone childbirth until the economy improved without affecting their longstanding goals of having a first or second child. ? What happened was a postponement of births among younger women with a longer time horizon, said Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist specializing in family issues. Women over 30 couldnt wait that much longer. ? While the decelerating decline in birth rates since 2009 reflects the easing of the recessions impact, the striking drop in teenage pregnancies shows little sign of abating. The teen pregnancy rate in 2