Chenango County’s teen pregnancy rates on the rise

CHENANGO COUNTY – Teen pregnancy rates for the counties of New York state have been released, and Chenango is seeing higher numbers than its neighbors.

Although statistical data is a few years behind, figures from 2007 show that Chenango County had a total of 96 pregnancies in women from age 15 to 19 that year. While that may not seem like a high number, it represents 56.4 pregnancies for every 1,000 women in that age range. The number has actually decreased slightly from 2006, when there were 57.3 pregnancies per 1,000, but from 2003 to 2005, the numbers were in the mid-40 range.

“The teen pregnancy rates are up a little bit in Chenango County,” said Planned Parenthood of South Central New York Director of Education Margo Doyle. “The rates are always up and down. This is not a new problem. We’ve always had high rates in Chenango County and this region.”

While the number of pregnancies is up, Ingrid Husisian, the director of communications, said the news isn’t all bad. “I would like to highlight the number of people taking steps to not have pregnancies.” Planned Parenthood saw a 16 percent increase in the number of patients seen in 2007. “Teens are taking steps to not get pregnant. We help a lot of young people to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease,” Husisian said.

Compared with surrounding areas, Chenango’s rate of teen pregnancy per 1,000 female teens is higher than neighboring counties, such as Broome at 43.1, Cortland at 30.5, Delaware at 31.2, Madison at 27.2 and Otsego at 22.9.

“Across our four county region [Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Otsego] we’re getting an increased number of calls from school administrators who are seriously concerned,” Doyle said.

While statistical data for the county has been released, Doyle said Planned Parenthood is waiting to receive more specific data that breaks down the pregnancy rates by zip code. The data is connected to funding streams and allows extra funding for zip code areas with the highest rates of teen pregnancies. “In Chenango County, we have several zip codes in that range,” Doyle said.