“Hope is the best contraceptive,” The State of Teen Pregnancy in Oklahoma is crucial, which is why we are Oklahoma—the Teen Pregnancy State. Teen birthrates and increasing pressure from concerned families and health advocates, have finally prompted the state of Oklahoma to step forward and create prevention programs. The question in place is: are these programs enough to make a difference in the gradual rising of our state ranking in teen pregnancy? I have gone through great depths to discover our State’s plans to prevent pregnancies in our teens. The following is what I have observed.
First, to truly understand why we need pregnancy prevention programs in Oklahoma, we have to analyze the situation. Why are these programs even up for discussion? Oklahoma has officially been ranked number five in the nation, number one being Texas, for unplanned teen pregnancy. There are fifty states under the constitution in our country; Oklahoma is in the top five for teen pregnancy. Furthermore, we rank number two in the nation for unplanned teen pregnancy among 18-19 year olds. These are childre...
Auteri, Steph. “How the Push for Abstinence Until Marriage Has Affected Teen Pregnancy Rates” Sexually Smarter. Planned Parenthood of Central and Greate...
Based on these statistics, teen pregnancy is obviously a large issue in this county. A possible solution to the issue would be that sex education could to be taught in junior and senior high schools and be taught by parents more often. By the time of sex education, a vast majority of students have already had sex. This may have played a part in Tony, from The Other Wes Moore, being a father at such a young age. The ultimately best solution to help stop teen pregnancy in this county alone is to provide a “sex clinic” to these teenagers. A safe sex clinic is a way of providing teenagers the facts of the real world and even offering various forms of birth control. As other solutions, parents need to have a sex talk with their children, and schools need to provide the option for a sex education more frequently. However, there is no way to mandate what parents teach to students, and it takes far too long to change a state's curriculum. That’s why, through this solution, the rate of teen births would show to decrease for the better.
In the article, “More Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus,” as seen on page A21A of the September 16, 2011 issue, author Morgan Smith tells her readers about new programs being introduced in West Texas to tech teenagers about not only abstinence, but additional how to practice safe sex. The article explains how teenage pregnancy rates in West Texas continue to spike despite the effort to push abstinence on teens. It explains in detail of a new sexual education program where teens are encouraged to choose abstinence but are educated in effective contraception as well. It covers schools in Midland, Texas and how endeavor to switch policy’s is embraced by the majority of community members as an active approach to decrease teen pregnancy. (Smith 1)
As everyone knows, teen pregnancy rate is increasing more and more each day and someone needs to do something to try and either stop it or decrease it dramatically. Teen pregnancy is causing dramatic population increase and that’s just common sense. Teens getting pregnant at such a young age is also causing poverty levels to go up more and more. Mississippi Spent over $100 million on teen pregnancy alone in the year 2010 (“Teen Pregnancy”). Just think of what it is now. More teens are dropping out of school and not finishing their education. According to the authors of this article, “approximately 30 percent of teen mothers have mothers who dropped out of high school, 40 percent have mothers who are mothers who dropped out of high school, 40 percent have mothers who are high school graduates, and 30 percent have mothers who attended college”(Kearny et al 143). Many people don’t realize that there are many effects of teen pregnancy including higher risk of birth defect, more likely to drop out, and also abortion rates increase.
According to www.cdc.gov, in 2013, a total of two hundred and seventy-three thousand, one hundred and five babies were born to women fifteen to nineteen years of age. Though this is low for the typical rate of teen- child births, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations. There are many stories of teen mothers who feel like they have their lives together, and consider their stories “success stories”. What most teens don’t understand, is the difficulties of being a mother, especially at such a young age. Teen pregnancy has more negative outcomes than positive outcomes, as shown by a girl named Haley in her teen pregnancy story. The best way to prevent teen pregnancy is through information
The past two decades have shown a decline in adolescent pregnancy but today, the United States continues to hold the number one position for highest adolescent pregnancy rates among developed countries.1 Research has found that about two in every five teenage girls become pregnant before the age of twenty years old.2 The recurrence of early childhood bearing now reaches up to 900,000 pregnancies each year in the United States.1 The various factors associated with high prevalence of teenage motherhood can be seen among communities affected by low socioeconomic status, a lack of education, and more interestingly, a new found correlation between the history of intergenerational, teenage childhood bearing with the family.2 Communities facing these problems continue to sustain such high statistical values for teenage pregnancy and have created a vicious cycle which is then adopted by following generations. Adolescent pregnancy not only creates a toll on the family, but also has adverse health effects on the child and society.
The overall teen birth rate has declined by 16 percent from 1991 to 1997. “All states are recording a decline and it is the sixth year in a row that the teen birth rate has declined,” stated Donna Shalala, HHS secretary of U. S. Newswire. Although the birthrate among teens is decreasing and the percentage of teenagers who have had sexual intercourse is declining, it is a multi-fauceted problem affecting today’s youth. The government is taking in to consideration all possibilities and conditions with teen births to make an affective way to prevent it.
This “Land of Opportunity” seems to be turning into a land of disrupting opportunity. Of all pregnancies in the U.S., about half are unintentional. Of these unintended pregnancies, 4 of 10 are aborted (“Abortions in America”). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there were over 300,000 babies born to teenage girls in 2011 alone (“About Teen Pregnancy”). This data shows how Americans value, (or don’t value), the lives of their unborn children, and those of the teenages that have made a decision that will stick with them for the rest of their
The birth rate among teens in the United States has declined 9% from 2009 to 2010, a historic low among all racial and ethnic groups, with the least being born in 2010; and in 2011 the number of babies born to adolescents aged 15-19 years of age was 329,797 (“Birth Rates for U.S.”, 2012). Although the decline in unwanted and unplanned teen births is on the rise the United States continues to be among the highest of industrialized countries facing this problem. This is a prevailing social concern because of the health risks to these young mothers as well as their babies. Teens at higher risk of becoming pregnant are raised at or below the poverty level by single parents; live in environments that cause high levels of stress (i.e., divorce, sexual psychological and physical abuse); are influenced by peers or family members that are sexually active; and lack parental guidance that would direct them to be responsible and self-controlled.
After viewing the pamphlet’s inclusive tone and readability, I began to ask myself if any U.S. states give minors confidential access to contraceptive services. The Guttmacher Institute responded, “Half of states explicitly allow minors to obtain contraceptive services without a parent’s involvement or interpret the absence of a law in favor of minors’ access. The remaining states allow access to contraceptive services without parental involvement only for certain groups of minors, such as married teens.”
About 40 percent of sexually active teenagers admit to not using any form of protection (like a condom) during their last session. Behavior like this leads to higher risks of pregnancy or even worse. From the years 2007 to 2011 there was a 26% decline in teenage pregnancies between the ages of 15 to 19, the number was 435,436 pregnancies dropping to an all-time low of 329,797 nationwide in 2011, which is a 105,639 difference from 2007. This decline is mostly accounted for by using birth control. John Santelli says that “If most of the progress in reducing teen pregnancy rates is due to improved contraceptive use, national policy needs to catch up with those realities"(U.S Teen Pregnancy). Experts are highly encouraged by the recent decline, but they cannot stress enough that more needs to be done about getting birth control out to those in need of it. “It is clear here that one of the jobs at hand is to get back on track to where we were, and that is convincing more young people of the value of delaying sexual activity and convincing sexually active teens to use contraception consistently and carefully,” said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unpla...
Teen pregnancy is a very important issue in the United States, where the adolescent birth rate had been dropping steadily from a high of “61.8 births
Three out of ten teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age twenty. That is nearly seven hundred- fifty thousand teen pregnancies every year. Teen pregnancy has become a big issue in the United States. With teen pregnancy, teens are getting pregnant, dropping out of school, struggling to find jobs, and are seeking a family member or friend to help take care of the baby. The amount of teenagers dropping out of school is a major issue, because the teens are unable to attend school fully. There are several solutions to this problem which consist of giving out birth control and contraceptives to all the young adults as well as as abstinence.
Have you ever wondered why teenage pregnancy is one of the biggest issues in the nation or why so many teens are having babies before they reach eighteen? Could it be the lack of parenting that goes on in their household or Are they being influenced to have sex at a young age? Statistics say one out of four girls will most likely become pregnant before they reach twenty, and about one out of five teen mothers will have another child during their teenage years. “Although the teenage birth rate in Oklahoma has declined slightly, the state has the second-highest rate of births among fifteen-to-nineteen- year olds in the country, according to a report released Friday”(Muchmore). This essay will analyze teen pregnancy, its causes, consequences,
Thesis Statement: Within America, there is a teen pregnancy epidemic across all socioeconomic backgrounds, presenting commonalities as to the causes and ramifications of adolescents emerging as a growing parental population.