Interstate variations in teenage fertility

The extremely wide variation among states in adolescent childbearing is examined using indicators that represent high or low modernity, i.e., percent urban, percent fundamentalism, percent black, and region (South-non-South); the intermediate variables of factors affecting exposure to intercourse (percent married females 15 to 19); and the deliberate fertility control factor of induced abortion (the state abortion-to-live birth ratio). Eighty-six percent of the variance among states in the 1974 teenage fertility rates (females 15 to 19) is explained, with region the most powerful single indicator of fertility, followed by percent married and state abortion ratio.