Ellen Saliares, MPH

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Great news! Another year of decreased birth rates

Unplanned pregnancy can have a huge impact on one's life, regardless of whether or not someone is a teen. Hennepin County has been committed to providing access to sexual health care and sexuality education that supports decreasing teen birth rates, with work targeting communities with the highest birth rates. And, those efforts have contributed to some great results! The 2016 teen birth rates for Hennepin County are out, and there has been a 12.4 percent decrease. Even more remarkable, this contributes to a 66 percent decrease over the past ten years. Although the Hennepin County rate is lower than the Minnesota rate, there are still significant disparities as there,unfortunately, are in other areas of health. This signals the necessity of targeted, high quality services that focuses on positive youth development and meeting each young person where they are.