&gt; Veronica Gomez-Lobo, director of pediatric gynecology at Children’s National Medical Center, said the trend of abstinence has been mostly among younger teens rather than older ones. While there&#x27;s not good data on why this is happening, she thinks of it as a “contagion” factor. So many teens are waiting to have sex, she suggests, that the peer pressure goes the opposite way than it might have in the past.<p>OK, so the interesting question is whether the birth rate for this cohort will increase as they get older. Hypothesis: Sex has become unworkable for many young people, and they will just opt out of reproduction. In recent decades, birth rates have dropped in many Western European countries, Russia, Japan, etc. The reasons have been diverse. Too many other options. Social disruption. Whatever. But time will tell ...