NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Cicely Wilson’s work doesn’t end when she leaves her day job as a lactation consultant, doula, and child care expert.
Wilson founded a nonprofit called Sunnyside Up Youth Pregnancy Services, which connects girls ages 13 to 19 with resources they need to care for their babies. After-hours, she looks for affordable Nashville apartments, books medical appointments, tries to find strollers and other baby supplies, and hosts conversations with pregnant teens about breastfeeding and preparing mentally for childbirth.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade just over a year ago, Wilson said, she is confident that more Tennessee teens will carry their pregnancies to term. “Because the access isn’t there,” she said. “I do anticipate that we’re going to get a lot more teens that are wanting to parent their babies rather than going to Illinois or Georgia or Florida.”
Demand for services like Wilson’s could rise in the coming years even though the national teen birth rate has declined dramatically over the past three decades. It’s still dropping, but preliminary data released in June by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the descent may be slowing.
Doctors, service providers, and advocates say they’re worried full CDC data released later this year — which will include state-by-state numbers — could show a rise in teen births in many Southern states, where rates remain among the highest in the country. They say several factors — including the Supreme...
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