It's been said that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. That being the case, a number of organizations and causes are taking credit for the news that the birth rates among American teens ages 15-19 are at the lowest level in the 60 years such figures have been collected, the Associated Press reports.

The latest report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) -- part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- shows birth rates for teenage girls between 15 and 19 years old dropped three percent from 1998 to last year, to a record low 49.6 births per 1,000 young women.

This is the lowest birth rate recorded for this age group since records were first compiled 60 years ago, and represents a 20 percent drop from 1991 levels, the NCHS reports. For the record, the number of births for girls ages 10 to 14 dropped by 4 percent to the lowest level in 30 years.

Health officials say the two main factors behind the encouraging decrease in the teen birth rate are fears of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, herpes and chlamydia, and the nation's record-setting economy means many young women are putting off having families in order to start careers.

The primary factor in the decrease, however, is the message being delivered on many fronts -- including parents, school sex-education classes, church groups and community organizations -- that it's okay for teens to either use birth control or simply abstain from sex, AP reports.

"In the past, abstinence was a joke. It's not a joke - it's OK. Kids are really concerned about catching STDs," Bronwyn Mayden, executive director of Campaign for Our Children (CFOC), told AP.

The nonprofit CFOC began its campaign to reduce teen pregnancy in Maryland more than a decade ago. It has since become a national organization that focuses its efforts to "encourage healthy, responsible sexual decisions" among 9- to 14-year-olds.

But the message of abstinence and safer sex is being heard by younger adults all across the nation, another advocate stated.

"Young people more and more are telling us they want to hear from adults about sex. They want to hear about values, about relationships, about love," Tamara Kreinin, president of the nonprofit Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), told the news service. "It's very important for young people to have sexuality education."

Even though it's far too early to start making assumptions based on just a few years of data, some child health and well-being experts say continued low teen birth rates might lead to lower child poverty rates as fewer single teen girls have babies, the news service reports.

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