Teen Pregnancy and Sex Education

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Recommended: prevent teen pregnancy by educating

Adolescent pregnancy is a crisis that inadvertently affects all. It is not only a burden to the young woman and her family, but it also has a consequential impact on society. Reducing the number of adolescent pregnancies would promote child well-being and decrease child poverty statistics (“National Data”). Increasing the number of comprehensive sex education courses would help young people learn how to better protect themselves against premature pregnancy and STDs, and in turn curtail the number of teenage pregnancies.

The Facts

Among industrialized countries, the United States has the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy. The rate of teen pregnancy in the U.S. is twice that of Great Britain and four times that of Germany and France. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy study, adolescent childbearing in 2006 alone cost U.S. taxpayers $9.1 billion (Hoffman).

Statistics illustrate the alarming number of female adolescents walking around with oversized stomachs. Three in ten girls in the United States becomes impregnated at least once by the age of twenty (“National Data”). One in three teen mothers obtain a high school diploma and only 1.5 percent have a college degree (“National Data”).

Infants born to adolescent mothers have a greater risk for premature birth, mental retardation ,abuse, neglect and are less likely to acquire adequate healthcare, than those who were born to a mother over the age of twenty (Hoffman). Daughters of adolescent mothers are also more prone to becoming teenage mothers themselves, while sons of teen mothers are more likely to participate in deviant acts.

The Reality Series

MTV Networks decided to document the controversial subject of teen pregnancy in the docume...

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...and Unplanned Pregnancy. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy , 30 Oct. 2006. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. .

Landry, David J. , Jacqueline E. Darroch, Susheela Singh, and Jenny Higgins. "Factors Associates with Content of Sex Education in U.S. Public Secondary Schools." Perspecitves on Sexual Reproductive Health 35.6 (2007): 261-262. Print.

Maci from 16 and Pregnant. 2009. Photograph. Chattanooga,TN. Gurl.com. Ed. MTV Networks. Alloy Media, LLC, 11 June 2009. Web. 11 May 2011. .

"National Data| The National Campaign." The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy , n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. .

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