Many adolescents are sexually active today. Whether it personal decision or being forced into it, teenagers are still involved. According to Sue Christensen and Ann Rosen, of those sexually active only one in five use contraception (Christensen). These teenagers who do not use contraception set their selves up for hardships in life. Being sexually active and using contraception as a teenager is a choice that may determine the rest of your life. Is “it” really worth it? One major outcome of those sexually active is pregnancy, which leads to many other choices: adoption, abortion, keeping the child, or even terminating the pregnancy.
Pregnancy all begins with talk of sexual activity. According to Ilene Lelchuk, out of 618 California high school students, 44 engaged in some type of sexual activity during the years of 2002 – 2004. These 44 students were had sexual relations by the end of tenth grade (Lelchuk 1). Statistics from The Family Connection of St. Joseph County, Inc., stated that “56 percent of young women and 73 percent of young men today have had intercourse by age 18…” (Christensen 3). Beginning in the 1950s, there are records of teenagers having intercourse and many unwanted pregnancies.
Shocking pregnancy trends from the 1950s to present
According to Christensen and Rosen, the teen birth rate in 1957 was higher than it is today (Christensen 1). In my opinion, although teenage pregnancy has become more socially acceptable in this day and age, so have pregnancy terminations and abortions. This meaning the birth rate may have gone down but the pregnancy rate has not.
Yet, “In 1955…only six percent of white teenage childbearing occurred outside of marriage; today it is 42 percent” (Christensen 1). Altho...
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... decision to become sexually active.
“Then he asked me to have sex. I was scared and everything, and I was like, “What am I gonna do?” The first time I told him no and he understood. We watched some TV. And he brought me home. Then a couple of days after that he asked me again, I said okay. I guess I said so because I just wanted to show him I wasn’t scared to have sex. I was scared. But I guess I was playing a role. I wanted to show him that I’m not scared. So we had sex…”
In my opinion, teen pregnancy is definitely not worth all the hardships. Teens should choose abstinence and completely reduce the risk of becoming pregnant. If pregnancy does occur, of those sexually active, adoption is the greatest choice a teenager can make. Providing the baby with a better life is the most important. Every teenager must ask themselves, is “it” really worth it?
"Teen Birthrate Hit Historic Low in 2009." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 10 Mar. 2011. Web. 07 May 2014.
Being a parent is very demanding and can be hard. The difficulties that come with an unplanned pregnancy in teens can have a profound effect on their life. Their physical, social, mental, and emotional health will all be affected by a sudden change in the course of their life. Teens impacted with an unplanned pregnancy will have to give up many things in order to be a parent. In addition, they will have to take on many more responsibilities that accompany pregnancy and parenthood. All in all, having an unplanned pregnancy and becoming a parent introduce many new responsibilities and difficulties.
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
Freely accessible birth control for teenagers has always been a topic of debate, but it prevents pregnancy, abortion, and it also has many health benefits. There are cons to the argument that suggests a rise in promiscuity in the adolescent demographic, but in spite of these cons the rise of birth control continues, because access to birth control helps adolescents make an informed and safe decision on whether or not to participate in sexual activities. It doesn’t make the decision for them.
Teen pregnancy is increasing yearly. According to the March of Dimes, teenage birth rates have decreased steadily in the country since 1991. Teenage birth rates in the United States remain relatively high compared to the more developed countries.
Studies show that within the last seven years there has been a dramatic drop in the number of teen pregnancies. Teen pregnancy is best known as, the act of getting pregnant between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. Teen pregnancy does not come with much of a history. In the past, (mostly in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s) it was common for girls to be married between the ages of fourteen and sixteen and give birth not long after. Some girls were having babies as young as thirteen and fourteen years old! During the times that young girls would bear children and be married so young, college and education was not an important factor. As a young girl you learned how to take care of your house, farm, laundry, crops, animals, husband, and children. The father was your main source of income. Obviously things in our time are very different. Over the years a growing importance for education and making a living on your own has become crucial to many women. It was no longer important to have children so soon, but to learn to be a strong, educated, and independent woman. Even now as time has gone by, the image of being a pregnant teenage girl has been glorified solely by media. It becomes less important to get an education so you can get a good job and be able to raise a child and give them a good life, and more important to get pregnant and get a chance to be worshiped nationally on t.v. for being pregnant and making all of your money through fame.
America has one of the largest pregnancy rates in teens in the whole world (“Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media”). Pregnant teens have to make many hard choices. They must decided to keep the baby or not., and to continue on with school. or not. Teens moms can lose everything they’ve worked for after one bad decision. Sex is in teens lives because of media influence.
In the US, teen pregnancy rates have been decreasing in the last decade even though current rates remain twice as high as those found in other industrialized nations (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994). In spite of decreasing rates, among African American teenagers, the pregnancy rate is particularly high. In 1996, the pregnancy rate was 178.9 per thousand among African-American females aged 15 to 19 years, compared with a pregnancy rate of 82.6 among whites (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1999). Additionally, on the basis of the findings of the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, it was determined that African American females (48%) aged 15 to 17 were more likely than their white (34%) counterparts to have had sexual intercourse since menarche. On the basis of information provide by the National Center for Health Statistics (1997), African-American females aged 15 to 19 were more likely than their white peers to have had their first sexual experience (i.e., intercourse) without using effective contraception (24% versus 14%, respectively). Consequently, on the basis of such risky behavior, African American teenagers are at greater risk than their white peers for experiencing a pregnancy.
The rise of the teen pregnancy rate has caused us to question the effectiveness of the prevention programs that are offered to adolescents. There have been several programs focused on preventing teen pregnancy from abstinence-only to more comprehensive sexual education programs. Abstinent-only advocates believe that abstaining from having intercourse is the only way to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy. While practicing abstinence is the only 100% secure method of reducing this rate, it is not a logical view. Adolescents will continue to have sexual behavior, and it is important in teaching them more precise education when it comes to sex education. With-holding important information and facts about sexual behavior can change an adolescents’ life forever. Whether it be from teen pregnancy or from a life threatening STD.
In America, one million teenagers get pregnant every year (National Abortion Federation, 2003). Of these pregnancies, 78% are unplanned because these teenagers start having sex at a very young age and are unaware of ways to prevent pregnancies. Thirty-five percent of the pregnant teenagers chose to abort, as they fear that the consequences of the pregnancy might have significant effects on their lives. The problems that come with teenage pregnancies include dropping out of school, receiving inadequate prenatal care, developing health problems, relying on public assistance to raise a child, and probably divorcing their partners. In most states, the law allows pregnant teenagers to take their babies for adoption without consulting their parents.
Around the world teenage pregnancy has been an issue. Many of the teen mothers are between 15 and 19. There have been a variety of attempts to provide a decline in teenage pregnancy such as: abstinence groups, the Federal Government, and local attempts. Teenage pregnancy was at an all time low in 2005 and then rose in 2006 and continues to rise. It is believed that teen pregnancy was lower because it was highly looked down upon as opposed to todays society it is more accepted.
Sex before marriage has always been a major issue. Teen pregnancy seems to double yearly: with no sign of stopping. Some teens use contraceptives and birth control incorrectly. They think pregnancy just can’t happen to them. In a lot of cases their embarrassed to buy protection or just simply unsure of how to use them. Many unplanned pregnancies happen beca...
Teen pregnancy, it’s one of the growing problems in today’s society. Teens today have more problems than ever, and in many cases the parents mistake signs of the problems for mere puberty phase. Beginning problem, which often trigger the others, seem to be families. Deeply religious families are most often heavily strict, and that prevents the teenagers to be informed about real life and what are they getting into. When that kind of person gets in a situation where his or her peers are more experienced then them, the outcome is a pressure. During the puberty the teenagers, especially males, are having problems with controlling their needs. It is easy to get pregnant for today’s teenagers, because they face many unbearable problems.
While many teens that engage in pre-marital sex never become pregnant, some are not as fortunate. Teen pregnancy has become all too common in this day and age. Some teens think it will not happen to them and do not use necessary precautions to protect against it. There are several causes for teen pregnancy and the effects can be life changing.
Teen pregnancy is the term used in reference to those young ladies who get pregnant before attainment of legal adulthood that is between 13-18 years age group. It is a circumstance under which a teenager becomes pregnant unintentionally affecting her life-span development. Teen pregnancy is a prevalent factor among many teenage women especially in their 16th to 19th birthday. Pregnant teenagers are today faced with many obstetrics problems similar to those of the women in their age gap of 20s and 30s. Additional medical concerns are experienced by pregnant teenagers in the developing countries especially women aged 14 or younger. A wide range of teenage pregnancy is unplanned and therefore more risk factors are experienced especially the socioeconomic risks. In the developing countries, teen pregnancies lead to social issues and life complications due to early motherhood. The associated social issues include lower educational levels, increasingly poverty level and other poor life outcomes. In the developed countries, teenage pregnancy occurs outside of marriage, thus leads to the development of social stigma in variety of cultures and communities (Carlson, 2009).