SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Nearly a quarter of Utah's teen moms ages 15-17 say they thought they or their partner was sterile, three times the national rate, officials say.

The data come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Pregnant Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which surveys women who had a live birth, but the Utah Health Department, which questioned the new mothers for the CDC, provided the state data to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Utah state health officials found nearly 17,400 babies were born to teen mothers in Utah from 2004 to 2008, with nearly 70 percent of the births in Utah were unintended, the Tribune said.

Among the female teens who had unintended pregnancies:

-- 53 percent of Utah teens use contraception versus 50 percent nationally.

-- 35 percent of teens ages 15-17 nationwide said they thought they couldn't get pregnant at the time, compared with 49 percent in Utah.

-- About 13 percent of teens nationally said they had trouble getting birth control, compared with 21 percent in Utah.

No follow-up questions were asked in the CDC survey, so it is unclear why the teens believed what they did, Utah heath officials said.

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