One in six 15 year old females will give birth by her 20th birthday. More than 750,000 teen girls in the United States learn they are pregnant each year, this number is the lowest in U.S. history. Teen pregnancy rates have dropped more and more through the years. Since the show ’16 and Pregnant’ has aired, between 1991 and 2008, the rate has dropped an average of about 2.5 percent a year. Between 2010 and 2014, the rate has dropped 7.5 percent a year (Wilson 2).
Teen pregnancy is a controversial issue because of the negative stereotypes, the health of the teen mothers, and the health risk they are putting their babies through. Although the percentage of teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined significantly within recent years; it is still a huge problem that needs to be addressed. The rates are still higher in the 1990's than they were only a period ago.” The United States teenage birthrate hits most of the other industrialized nations, even though American teenagers are not more sexually active than the teenager’s that are in Canada or Europe”(Gormly 348). The latest statistics concerning the teen birthrates are frightening. There is about 560,000 teenage girls give birth each year.
According to experts approximately 9 percent of Unite State teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 become pregnant every year. And even though some studies have shown that the incidence of teenage pregnancy has generally been in decline since 1991, the causes and effects of underage childbearing has continued to be a big burden on families, the public and government. Babies having babies is the simplistic way that some people have described the specter of having a baby while teenager are unprepared. The United State case study which is the subject of this paper is unique, even though reflecting the same generic features with teenagers elsewhere in the world. Teenage pregnancy is a socio-economic and moral problem in the United State.
Before successfully preventing teen pregnancies among teenage girls, there are many underlying causes and facts about the dilemma that must be first exposed. Children from homes run by teenage mothers have to face almost insurmountable obstacles in life. The incidents of depression and mental health problems, the lack of father figures, and the high rate of poverty often connected to children in homes run by teenage mothers put them at serious disadvantages when compared to children raised in nuclear families. Many people believe that the implementation of sex education in schools and the addition of more federal aid for single parents are major causes for the country's high rate of teen pregnancies. The true purpose of sex education and federal aid is to help strengthen the mother and her child so that they can eventually lead productive lives.
There has been a decline in unplanned pregnancies rates, however, the level are still too high. Unmarried pregnancy in teenagers has already had a huge impact on society in the United States. On an individual level and a larger spectrum the effects have been felt on broader level. There are so many unfavorable consequences that are associated with premarital teen childbearing. The teen pregnancy, poverty, and income disparity article states that “two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor” as noted by (Teen pregnancy, poverty, and income disparity, 2010).
In 2012, teen pregnancy ages 15 to 17 year olds rate were 14.1 per 1,000 and ages 18 to 19 year olds rate were 51.4 per 1,000. Adolescents ages 15 to 19, pregnancy rate in United States has decreased by 57 percent in the past 40 years (Folken et al., 2014). There are several reason why it has declined. According to the National Survey of Family Growth, females aged 15 to 19 informed using an oral contraceptive at last intercourse around the years of 1995 to 2002 (Langille, 2007). The oral contraception increased from 32 percent to 49 percent.
Between 1996 and 2006, Canada 's teenage pregnancy rate steadily declined by 37%. However, since 2006, Canada 's teenage pregnancy rate has been on the rise, increasing from 27.9 pregnancies per 1,000 teens, to 28.2. This is of great concern to Canada, for teenage pregnancy has many health, social, and media issues. Therefore, teenage pregnancy in Canada requires a solution, that will prevent such pregnancies, and support the teen parents To begin with, there are many common reasons why teenage pregnancy takes place. In fact, 60% of teenage mothers come from economically disadvantaged households and perform poorly in school.
Pregnancy is a natural condition that usually brings joy, positively changing people’s lives. While pregnancy is seen as a welcomed transition to motherhood for many women, unplanned pregnancies can be traumatic. For teens especially, an unplanned pregnancy is not harmless. Analysis by (Medoff, 2010) shows that 90% of teens become pregnant yearly unintentionally and half of these pregnancies result in a live birth (p. 1). Also about 750,000 teenagers become pregnant at least ounce before turning 20 (Dorlisa & shandler, 2011).
But what has impacted such an increase? The media does a great job at not showcasing the unpleasant aspects of teen pregnancy, but what really happens after? Besides the media being a factor in teen pregnancies, many don’t consider how parent/child relationships and the socioeconomic consequences encountered after the birth affect the mother and that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Teen pregnancy is a huge epidemic around the world today impacting many teenage girls from many socioeconomic backgrounds. And while having a child is a big challenge in itself, but having a child while not being economically secure makes it much harder and the socioeconomic consequences are much greater.
Throughout generations, teen pregnancy has been an alarming social issue that has been a concerning in the American race. Becoming a teen parent brings obstacles such as, lower expectations of graduating high school, not being able to attend college and decrease of success rate in the job industry. Obstacles in raising a child cannot only harm the adolescent childbearing mother but the child as well. Moreover, research has found that children of teens have a worse cognitive and behavioral outcome than older mothers (Teen pregnancy). Studies have found that the reason to these psychological problem is the result of the mother not being economically stable.