The increase reverses a 15-year trend. And unwanted pregnancies will rise, researchers predict.

A 15-year decline in Texas teen birth rates slid to a stop—and converted into a modest increase in 2022, the year after the state Legislature implemented what was the nation’s strongest ban on abortion, according to new report from the University of Houston’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality.

The UH report, based on Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data, showed that Texas teen birth rates rose in 2022 by less than 1 percent, but any increase stood out, given that those rates had fallen 67 percent since 2007. The significant reductions occurred thanks to more reliable contraception, including Plan B, as well as abortion access, Institute Director Elizabeth Gregory said in an interview with the Texas Observer.

“For Texas to have a moment when [the teen birth rate is] going up while the national birth rate continues to decline, it shows an influence of that new policy,” she said. Birth rates among Texas teens remain consistently higher than in other states, and more Texas teens give birth to multiple children than anywhere else.