More handpicked essays just for you.
Ways to prevent teenage pregnancy essay
Public health issue teen pregnancy
Ways to prevent teenage pregnancy essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
Teenage pregnancy is a condition that can be controlled in many instances. Congress’ campaign is “To reduce the teenage pregnancy by supporting values and stimulating actions that are consistent with a pregnancy-free adolescence,” stated the Speaker pro tempore Mr. Taylor of North Carolina. Congress’ goal is to balance the budget and reduce spending in the area of Medicaid funds, food stamps, and AFDC funds that are especially hard-hit by the teenage pregnancy problem. Reducing teenage childbearing through this campaign is likely to require more than eliminating or manipulating welfare programs.
A form of prevention funded by the Department of Public Health in Massachusetts is The Challenge Fund. It is a community-based approach to teen pregnancy prevention. These coalitions unite youth, family, and community in order to create and increase opportunities for youth development and leadership. It also increases awareness of ownership of the risks, costs and problems of teen pregnancy.
The Federal Government has invested millions of dollars into an abstinence education program for young adults that provide ways for them to avoid sexual activity at such a young age. The program teaches teens the importance of sustaining from sexual activity before marriage and the importance of a monogamous relationship in a marriage. It also teaches them the harmful effects psychologically and physically, of sexual activity at a young age.
Studies show a trend toward sexual abstinence and improved use of condoms as possible reasons for sudden change in the pregnancy rate decreasing. Other studies also show that teen abortions are steadily declining as well, ruling out abortion as a factor in the falling national teen birth rate. “The government cannot calculate an overall teen pregnancy rate, which includes live births and abortions, because ten states keep no figures on abortions,” stated Stephanie Ventura, a statistician with CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
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.
It has been almost thirty three years since the first federal funding was put to use in “. . . sex education programs that promote abstinence-only-until-marriage to the exclusion of all other approaches . . .” according to the article “Sex education” (2010) published by “Opposing Viewpoints in Context;” a website that specializes in covering social issues. Since then a muddy controversy has arisen over whether that is the best approach. On one hand is the traditional approach of abstinence (not having sex before marriage), and on the other is the idea that what is being done is not enough, and that there needs to be a more comprehensive approach. This entails not only warning against sex, but also teaching teens about how to have “Safe Sex” (“Sex Education,” 2010).
Be that as it may, teen pregnancies in the US have been progressively dropping in recent years and continue to drop, although no one can identify whether that is a causation or a correlation.
The primary argument which most advocates for abstinence only education have is that sex before marriage is immoral, not appropriate and that abstinence is the only completely effective method of preventing teen pregnancy and STI contraction. These advocates also emphasize that condoms are not a sure-fire way of preventing pregnancy and STI contraction. Many of the proponents for abstinence-only education believe that educating youth with information concerning sex and contraception will embolden them to become to begin or increase sexual activity. Such advocates accredit the lowering of teenage pregnancy to abstinence only education (Collins, Alagira, and Summers 12-13).
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).
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.
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.
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 between 2006 and 2011 there was an average drop of about 30% of teen pregnancies and 50% of teens involved in any kind of sexual activity (not just intercourse) in America. According to a recent study as of 2008, teen birth rates in the U.S., (which have been declining for tw...
Teen Pregnancy has been a big epidemic this past century. Not only effecting countries like the United States , Mexico and England but also countries like Canada and Sweden. The big baby boomer epidemic started it all not only in the United states but all over the world. Many people wouldn’t think that Canada has had a problem with teen pregnancy rates but it was one of the many countries that was involved with the baby boomer era. Most people didn’t know pregnancy rates doesn’t just include live births but also abortions and fetal loss rates which many people fail to add in this category. The main purpose of the research was to show the trends in teen pregnancy only in Canada from 2001 to 2010. The researchers believed that pregnancy has in facet went down since the start of research in the 1974 by almost 20% . Most people think this information isn’t that important but it is its important for educators , service providers, and also policy makers. Teen pregnancy numbers were compared per 1000 women ages 15 to 19. Some of the Providences didn’t want to participate in this study so they had to estimate the number of abortions per clinic that did let them do the study for teens ages 19 and under. In years leading up to 2008 the CIHI reported a decline in teen abortions not only in one providence but also in others. From 2001 – 2005 teen birth and abortions declined in 10 out of 12 Providences by 14.8% this was the largest decrease they've seen so far. Researchers found that teen birth and abortion rates both declined from 2001 to 2010. Birth rates declined by 15.6% while abortion rates declined by 24.2 % Both rates fell by 20.3% from 2001 to 2010. Since teen pregnancy has decreased since starting research it shows that teens are eit...
Teen pregnancy is a big deal. We have seen our numbers of teen’s pregnant drop since 1991 but it is still a high number. Our numbers of teen pregnancy at times have been greater in number than other countries. We see teen pregnancy amongst people in all races, black, white, and Hispanic. Our babies are having babies. Teens are often not careful and have unprotected sex. They think they are mature enough to have sexual relations but in the end our mature enough to care for the consequences of having sex. “Low levels of parental education and income sharply increase the likelihood that a young women will become sexually active and have an unplanned child” (Macionis, 2015). That statement of research is very powerful, but not as powerful as this one, “Compared to young women who lives with both biological parents, those who live with a mother and a stepfather or in some other family arrangements have triple the odds of having a child by age nineteen” (Macionis, 2015). There are ways to prevent teen pregnancy from educating our children about ways of prevention, statistics/research, and simply just being involved with our children.
Santelli, J., Ott, A., Lyon, M., Rogers, J., Summers, D., &Schelifer, R. (2006). Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs. Journal of Adolescent Health 38 p.p.72-81.
The government likes to pretend that if high school students get taught the “abstinence-only” method they would never think of taking part in sexual activities. Statistically this is incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “56 percent of high school students are virgins”(Martin). For the 56 percent abstinence only is doing them well, but there are still 44 percent of high school students engaging in sex without knowing the precau...
For that reason, teen should be fully educated on the dos and don’ts when it comes to sex. Telling a youth that they should simply wait till marriage would intensify their curiosity about sex and push them to try it. Sex education is necessary for public schools; however, it should not be abstinence-only.
Babies are born more likely to be born premature and/or suffer low birth weight. There are a lot of problems involved with children having children. There is a higher risk of low birth rate, premature labor, and stillbirth. The problem is teenage girls are not done growing and fully maturing, there for, when they become pregnant it induces problems not only on the baby but the mother as well. *A general rule: The younger the mother, the greater risk of complications for both the mother and child. Often pregnant teenage mothers deny the fact that they are indeed pregnant, therefor ignoring the proper care that she needs for the growing baby inside of her. There are no easy answers; that’s one thing that everyone agrees on when it comes to the problem of teen pregnancy. The Center of Disease Control and prevention affirmed on June 26 what other agencies, such as the National Center for Health Statistics, have been saying over the course of this year: “The teen pregnancy rate is dropping. The number of teenage girls across the country who became pregnant fell 12 percent between 1991 and 1996. This drops affects girls, of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds, in all states. But the problem remains; The U.S. teen pregnancy rate is the highest of any industrialized countries. Babies born in the U.S. to teenager mothers are at risk for long-term problems in many major areas of life, including school failure, poverty, and physical or mental illness. The teenage mothers themselves are also at risk for these problems.