Friday , October 4, 2002

A story published today by the Rocky Mountain News reports that the state of Colorado was awarded $19.8 million from the federal government because of a startling 63 percent decline in its out-of-wedlock births between 1995 and 2000.

"This is a real success story for Colorado," Gov. Bill Owens said in a statement released Thursday morning. "It shows that with a concentrated effort, you can make a real difference."

But it turns out, it was too good to be true.

"Those numbers are all wrong," the federal statistician of the rewards program for pro-marriage initiatives, said Thursday.

The actual decline in births to unmarried mothers here: Less than 1 percent - but still good enough to keep the $19.8 million.

The 63 percent figure represented the decline in the abortion rate, not the decline in the unmarried birth rate, said department spokeswoman Liz McDonough, who took the blame for the mistake.

Even the small decline the U.S. Department of Human Services credits Colorado with doesn't quite match up with the Colorado vital statistics records. Those records show a slight increase in the percentage of births to unmarried mothers during those years.

The state's official book on the subject shows that 24.8 percent of births were to unmarried mothers in 1995 and 1996. By 1999 and 2000 that had bumped up slightly to 25.2 percent.

Either way, it's about 16,700 births a year to unmarried women, or one in every four births.

The number of live births to Colorado teenagers isn't declining, but because the numbers of abortions are, that means fewer Colorado teens are getting pregnant. And that presumably means that fewer are sexually active.

Colorado's $19.8 million will be spent by Colorado Works, a cooperative of the governor's office and the state's abstinence education program.

State officials have touted numerous initiatives aimed at reducing out-of-wedlock births. Those sounded better when they thought the decline was 63 percent.

"From what I'm seeing, I think the incidents are going up," said Dr. Karolyn Kabir, pediatrician at the West Side Teen Clinic at 11th Avenue and Federal Boulevard in Denver.

"I've just had a rash of 13-year-olds coming in and being pregnant recently," she said.

"It's too soon to start crowing," said Chuck Lemoine, director of Delta County Health and Human Services. "Teen pregnancy rates tend to follow the economy. We're kind of end the dumps now, and I'm afraid of what the (next) numbers will look like."