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Hawaii teenagers have more abortions than girls nationally.

They also give birth to more babies than their peers.

Although Hawaii ranks 17th in the nation for teen pregnancy, it has the abortion rate, according to the international nonpartisan . About 35 percent of teen pregnancies (women aged 15-19) in Hawaii end in abortion, compared with 27 percent nationally.

On the other hand, Hawaii’s abortion rate for women of all ages is roughly comparable to the national average: 19 percent.

The numbers indicate a high occurrence of unwanted pregnancies in paradise, said Katie Reardon, director of government relations and public affairs at . Ironically, a recent push from to cut federal funding for could send the rate climbing even higher.

Note: Blue = Percentage of teen pregnancies ending in abortion. Green = The number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-19. (See full interactive graphic .)

“When you’re comparing abortion rates, you need to compare apples to apples, and Hawaii is in a different place than most of the rest of the country,” Reardon said. “We actually have really good access to safe and legal abortion.”

Almost 100 percent of women in Hawaii have access to one of 37 abortion service providers, she said. The providers are located throughout the state’s four counties. And state law allows girls to get an abortion without parental consent or notification. Thirty-six states require some form of parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion.

Liberal access to abortion services, paired with the state’s long history of supportive laws, influences the frequency with which women of all ages seek abortions here.

“Because Hawaii was one of the first states to decriminalize abortion in the 1970s, the consciousness in our community might be a little different when it comes to accessing those types of services,” Reardon said.

Unintended Pregnancy

A high abortion rate in any state indicates a high rate of unintended pregnancies, each of which can carry with it an array of negative consequences, according to state health officials. Civil Beat reported recently that a lack of consistent health education in Hawaii public schools has contributed to a higher-than-average rate of pregnancy among teens.

In Hawaii, approximately of pregnancies ending in live birth are unintended, according to the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). Nearly three-quarters of teen pregnancies were unintended. Those numbers don’t include pregnancies that ended in abortion, which would make the unwanted pregnancy rate even higher, said Candice Radner Calhoun, public health supervisor in the Family Health Services Division.

“This is of concern as unintended pregnancy is associated with increased likelihood of infant and maternal illness, and the social, economic, and emotional challenges related to making decisions about pregnancy termination,” Calhoun explained in an e-mail to Civil Beat.

Unintended pregnancy can carry negative health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after pregnancy, Calhoun said — and not just for teens, but for women of every age and stage in life.

“On the other hand when pregnancies are intended and planned, there is greater opportunity and motivation for women and their partners to adopt or maintain positive health behaviors, often leading to improved birth and infant outcomes,” she said.

As part of its effort to meet the federal government’s objectives, the health department is focused on reducing the state’s rate of unintended pregnancy to 30 percent.

That will involve targeting education programs at sexually active teens, more than half of whom reported not using condoms in a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of unintended pregnancies in Hawaii resulted from not using contraception, according to the PRAMS results.

“We need to continue to provide messaging which promotes healthy decision making and reduces risk-taking behaviors that can result in unintended pregnancy and associated risk taking behaviors such as alcohol use and sexual activity and sexually transmitted diseases,” Calhoun said.

Proposed Cuts to Education and Prevention Services

Education and access to proper birth control and reproductive health services are keys to preventing unintended pregnancies among women of all ages, Reardon said.

“If we are interested in decreasing the rate of abortion, which I think we all are, we need to make sure that prevention is being used and being taught — not just with women, but with men also,” she said. “Sex education is one of those things that kids need to make smart choices, and when we as a community or parents or educators don’t give it to them, they’re going to be engaging in riskier behavior and having more unintended pregnancies.”

But abortion opponents in Congress are seeking to cut funds to the federal , which helps pay for education and reproductive health care for more than 5 million people nationwide and 23,000 people in Hawaii.

The Family Planning Program does not provide money for abortion services, but it does help fund things like affordable annual exams, PAP smears, birth control, family planning, counseling, and testing for people of reproductive age. The program emphasizes reaching the low-income, hard-to-reach, uninsured and underinsured population. It also funds community-based health educators who provide reproductive health information and promote access to services for those in need.

The proposed cuts would be painful for organizations like Planned Parenthood, Reardon said, “but it would really be devastating for the women here. You would probably see the abortion rate get higher.”