The state’s teen birth rate hit its lowest recorded level ever and analysts are crediting the use of contraception rather than a change in behavior for the decline.
In 2010, the latest year available, 72,835 babies were born in Massachusetts, down nearly 3 percent from the year before. Teenage girls accounted for 5.4 percent of the births, or a rate of 17.1 births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, half the national rate of 34.3 births per 1,000 girls. Teen births are a concern because of an elevated risk of health problems with the babies and the societal cost of teenage childbearing.
Elizabeth Peck, public policy director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, said the data compiled by the state Department of Public Health along with other reports indicate teenagers have not changed their sexual behavior significantly, “but they are doing a better job of using contraception.”
Nationally, Massachusetts had the second-lowest teen birth rate in the nation, behind only New Hampshire at 15.7 births per 1,000 girls. Generally, northern states had the lowest teen birth rates, while Sun Belt states had the highest. Mississippi led the nation in teen births at 55 per 1,000 girls, followed by New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, and Tennessee.
The state Department of Public Health’s report offered a blizzard of statistics that painted a fairly grim picture of motherhood in the state’s poorer communities, particularly Gateway Cities. The state’s highest teen birth rate was in Holyoke (84 births per 1,000 teen girls), followed by Lawrence (57), Springfield (54), Chelsea (52), Southbridge (49), New Bedford (47), Lynn (46), Lowell (45), and Fall River (45).
In Springfield, 71 percent of births in 2010 were to unwed mothers, while the percentages were 70 percent in Lawrence, 64 percent in New Bedford, and nearly 64 percent in Fall River. By contrast, the percentages were 6 percent in Brookline, 7 percent in Arlington, and nearly 9 percent in Newton. Statewide, 35 percent of births were to unwed mothers; nationally, the percentage was 41 percent.
Hispanics accounted for the highest percentage of unmarried mothers at 67.5 percent, followed by blacks at 57.6 percent. The study indicated 80 percent of Puerto Rican mothers were unmarried at the time they gave birth.
The state report also documented a shift toward women giving birth later in life. In 1980, a quarter of births were to women 30 or older, while in 2010 the figure was 54 percent.
— BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
A coalition of civic, business, and education leaders is pushing the Legislature to support Gov. Deval Patrick’s effort to fund extended day initiatives for some the state’s neediest schools. The Globe editorial page weighs in with support for the plan. Other stories appeared in the Lowell Sun, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the Brockton Enterprise and New Bedford Standard Times.
More evidence of chaos in the state drug lab. WBUR has photos indicating sloppy conditions.
Anne Manning-Martin sues state officials, claiming she was demoted at the Department of Corrections because of her support for her sister, Mary-Ellen Manning, a member of the Governor’s Council who has been critical of many of Gov. Patrick’s appointments, the Salem News reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The third and final installment of the Globe’s Spotlight series on the underside of Boston’s exploitative taxi industry documents how hard it is for cabbies to get ahead. Mayor Thomas Menino orders a review of the city’s oversight of the industry in response to the series reports of widespread violations of various policies by taxi fleet owners. Menino tells Globe columnist Kevin Cullen he hasn’t actually read the entire first two Spotlight articles. “It’s too long,” said Menino. Meanwhile, though Menino is famous for micromanaging every aspect of city government, the mayor’s spokeswoman tells Cullen the taxi stories don’t “have anything to do with him.”
Weymouth residents are split over Mayor Sue Kay’s proposal to add the local option meals tax and earmark the funds to improve the town’s decrepit playing fields.
Quincy is the latest community to pass a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries while officials contemplate zoning and restrictions.
Some upheaval in local elections on the South Coast as the challenger in Fairhaven ousted an incumbent selectman arising from the battle over the town’s two wind turbines. In nearby Freetown, the selectmen’s refusal to hold hearings over allegations of improper business dealings by the town’s building inspector appears to have cost the chairman her seat.. In Acushnet, voters for the third time in 10 years rejected a proposal to construct an addition to the library.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Connecticut goes where Washington won’t on gun control. Meanwhile, a small Georgia town passes a largely toothless ordinance requiring homeowners to own guns, the Associated Press reports.
Thirteen states ask the Obama administration to broaden religious exemptions under the Affordable Care Act so any business that objects to contraception can refuse to provide coverage for it, the Plain Dealer reports.
Caroline Kennedy is expected to be named the ambassador to Japan.
Slate argues that if we really want to run Washington like a business, we should give Congress a big salary bump, and start paying to attract talent.
The FBI busts a plot to rig the New York City mayoral race, the New York Times reports.
ELECTIONS
An anti-gay conservative group is planning to produce radio and television ads supporting GOP Senate candidate Michael Sullivan.
The Herald says Suffolk DA Dan Conley may be squeezing long-presumed mayoral successor Rob Consalvo out of political space; John Tobin, a former city councilor, tells the paper that if you’re not in the race to succeed Tom Menino by Wednesday, you’re not in the race.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Fannie Mae, the government-owned mortgage giant that collapsed in 2008, books its first annual profit since 2006.
EDUCATION
Columbia University big thinker Andrew Delbanco considers the promise — and peril — of MOOCs, massive open online courses.
HEALTH CARE
Nurses at the Quincy Medical Center will stage a one-day strike on April 11 to highlight what they say are dangerous staffing levels and declining patient care at the for-profit hospital owned by Steward Health Care.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Town Meeting in Falmouth will decide next week whether the community will become the first in the nation to tear down its wind turbines, WBUR reports.
As bigger companies move into the fracking business, safety goes up, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Michael Grunwald in Time says President Obama has done a lot on climate change.
A new Gallup poll shows 75 percent of Americans want the country to pursue more solar power while 71 percent support wind turbines. The survey, though, shows a partisan split with Republicans favoring natural gas production by more than 2-to-1 with Democrats and independents slightly in support.
Fall River and Somerset will split $1.6 million for clean energy projects stemming from a settlement between the EPA and the owner of the coal-fired Brayton Point Power plant in Somerset.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
A State Police lieutenant in charge of crime scene analysis for the state crime lab is ousted from his job after officials learned he was moonlighting for the defense in a Beverly case, the Salem News reports.
A Maine man is arrested and returned to Massachusetts 34 years after he went on the lam after being convicted of raping three women.
Turnabout: Whitey Bulger wants the FBI to reveal an informant’s identity, but the feds are balking.
MEDIA
Ezra Klein, in the Washington Post, suggests Twitter is mostly a waste of time.
