Pros And Cons Of Teen Pregnancy

The Increase of Teenage Pregnancy Teenage parenthood is by no means a new social phenomenon. Historically, women have tended to begin childbearing during their teens and early twenties. During the past two decades the U. S. teenage birthrate has actually declined (Polit and others, 1982). In the late 1950s, 90 out of 1000 women under 20 gave birth as compared with 52 out of 1000 in 1978. Several factors contribute to the current attention focused on teenage pregnancy and parenthood.

Linda Chavez said, “In 2008, the last year for which in-depth data are available, nearly 750,000 young women under 20 became pregnant, including some 236,000 teenage girls ages 15 to 17” (Page 1). This shows how many teens were on birth control since the rate had dropped 52 percent. But no matter how much the rates have dropped it still isn’t right for minors to not get permission from their parents. Although it is a positive thing that the rate is dropping teens need to take consideration of the precautions of the use of birth control, anything thing could happen to teens if they use it. There are a lot of health risks that come to birth control that teens do not know about.

While in Ward 8 have about 94% of their citizens that are Black and 1.8% are Hispanic. Between both wards, about 63% of households including both Blacks and Hispanics are living below the federal poverty line and about 37% of births from the 2010 census were from teenage mothers. Abo... ... middle of paper ... ...tics illustrate that the teenage girls in Wards 7 and 8 are the most in need of an intervention. The teen pregnancy rate has been on the decline in recent years in Washington D.C., though it would be most beneficial to focus on the teen pregnancy rate in Wards 7 and 8 (childtrends). From 2010 to 2012 the teen pregnancy rate declined from 19 percent to 16 percent (childtrends).

And 80% of the abortions where funded by the NHS. 87% of abortions were carried out under 13 weeks gestation and 58% were under 10 weeks. And under 1% (1,950) were under ground E risk (Handicapp). 2004: In 2004, there were far more abortions than in 2003, a total of 185,400 in England and wales (All residential) a rise of 2.1% this year has the higest abortion rate, at 31.9 per 1000 for woman in the 18-19 and 20-24 age groups. The under-16 abortion rate was 3.7.

For example from 1990 to 2010 the teen birth rate has declined from 61.8 to 29.4 for every one thousand teen girls (Teen Pregnancy & Childbearing 1). Even with a decrease from the past twenty years, National statistics show that in 2012 there were still 305,388 teen births. On average there were twenty-nine births for every one thousand girls and only fifty-four percent were planned. More pregnancies occur among girls of minority. For example forty-six out of every one thousand girls of Hispanic descent were pregnant in 2012 while African American girls had close to forty-four for every one thousand.

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).

As higher education became available to women, they began to start their families later in life. By the 1950’s, parents were encouraging their kids to stay in school and to not marry until they graduate high school so they can focus on school better. Today, any teen pregnancy is frowned upon and they are getting judged. Parents want their kids to enjoy all the benefits of higher education before they begin their families. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2011, a total of 329,797 babies were born in the United States to girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.” Teenage pregnancy is the number on... ... middle of paper ... ...nant teens or teen moms have are peers or siblings who are in a similar position.

In 2012, there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 females ranging from the age 15-19. This is 305,420 babies total born to females in this age group. Eighty-nine percent of these births occurred outside of marriage. The 2012 teen birth rate shows a decline of six percent from 2011 when the birth rate was 31.3 per 1,000 girls. The teen birth rate has declined pretty steadily over the past 20 years.

The rate of pregnancy per 1,000 females aged 15 -19 years in United States is 76.4 percent in 2002. The abortion rate per 1000 was 21.7 percent. Teenage pregnancy rate declined from 1994 to 2002 in United States (Langille, 2007). It continue to decline in 2012, the teen pregnancy rate drop to 29.4 per 1,000 (Folken et al., 2014). 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.

Eighty-one percent of women aged 20-24 had sexual intercourse before the age of 20 (1, as cited in Gale Group, 2002). 97 out of every 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 find themselves pregnant each year. Out of these 97 teenagers 78 percent are unintended (AGI, 1999a, as cited in PPFA, 1998-2002). Ideally, a teenager that becomes pregnant should make her mother and/or father aware of her pregnancy. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.