Teen Pregnancy Within The United States

Even though some people say shows such as ’16 and pregnant’ and ‘Teen Mom’ glamorize teen pregnancies, the rate of teen births have dropped even more since the television shows have aired in 2009. The shows show the challenges and struggles that come with getting pregnant at a young age, while still juggling high school. Between 1991 and 2008 teen pregnancy was dropping 2.5 % per year. Between 2010 and 2014 the rate has been dropping 7.5 % per year, and increasing. One in six 15 year old females will give birth by her 20th birthday.

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.

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.

The global under-five mortality rate declined by more than half, dropping from 90 to 43 deaths per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2015 (Cite UN). Between 2000 and 2013, measles vaccination helped prevent 15.6 million deaths. However, 16,000 children under-five still continue to die everyday from preventable causes, and the agenda for MDG4 is far from finished (cite UN). Since 1990, the maternal mortality ratio has been cut nearly in half. In 2014, skilled health personnel assisted more than 71% of births, which was an increase from 59% in 1990.

Over the year teen pregnancy has went up and down. For ten years it went down, but in 2004 the percentage raised up by three percent. In 2006 among Black and Hispanic teens ages 15-19, there were about 126 pregnancies per 1,000 women, White among with teens, it was 44 per 1,000. In 2008, the national teen pregnancy rate was 68 pregnancies per 1,000 teens, a 42 percent decline from the peak rate of 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women, the lowest since the legalization of abortion in 1973. Oklahoma ranks 26 of all 50 states in the number of teen pregnancies with the rate of 59.6 percent teen pregnancies per 1,000 births.

According to studies, nearly 1.5 of the 12 million females born in India each year does not see a first birthday. Only 9 million of these young women will survive to see a 15th birthday (Sumner). The ratio of females to males decreased from 927 girls per 1000 boys in 2001 to only 914 girls per 1000 boys in 2011 (Dasgupta). The estimated number of deaths in females under the age of five is 261,800 in India (Missing Girls). Aside from a declining gender ratio, studies have proven that females in India also suffer other forms of inequality.

According to the US Census Bureau “teen mothers are more than twice as likely as mothers between ages 25 and 29 to live in poverty” (As cited in Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, 2008, p.9). A major risk factor as to why many teenage mothers live in poverty is because they drop out of high-school, “fewer than 38 percent get a high school diploma and another 19 percent get a GED, and only 5% of young teen mothers complete at least two years of college by age 30 and less than 2% obtain a college degree.” (Stewart Ng and Kaye, 2012a, p.1; Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, 2008, p.10) ". Therefore, these mothers will not get a well-paying job to raise their child. Teen mothers are more likely to l... ... middle of paper ... ...lt, and Adult Mothers: http://proxy4.vaniercollege.qc.ca:2114/pdf27_28/pdf/2013/MPQ/01Jan13/85124292.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=85124292&S=R&D=a9h&EbscoContent=dGJyMNHr7ESeqLU4v%2BbwOLCmr0yep7JSrqe4SrCWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGnsEywqLVPuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA • Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, 2008: Teenage Births: Outcomes for Young Parents and their Children: http://www.scaany.org/documents/teen_pregnancy_dec08.pdf • Stewart Ng and Kaye, 2012a: Why It Matters; Teen Childbearing, Education, And Economic Wellbeing: http://thenationalcampaign.org/sites/default/files/resource-primary-download/childbearing-education-economicwellbeing.pdf • Stewart Ng and Kaye, 2012b: Why It Matters; Teen Childbearing, Single Parenthood, And Father Involvement: http://thenationalcampaign.org/sites/default/files/resource-primary-download/childbearing-singleparenthood-fatherinvolvement.pdf

The teen birth rate has declined pretty steadily over the past 20 years. In 1991, the teen birth rate in the U.S. was 61.8 births for every 1,000 teenage girls, compared with 29.4 births for every 1,000 females in 2012 that’s pretty good. The U.S. teen birth rate is still higher than that of many other developed countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. Although the teenage pregnancy numbers are decreasing, there’s still a lot of pregnant teens in today’s society. Many of the teens that do get pregnant sadly do not know very much about the whole process.

The United States has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate in the developed world. As statistics show one in nine women between the ages of 15 through 19 become pregnant each year. Also, every 26 seconds a teenage girl becomes pregnant and every 56 seconds a child of a teenage mother is born." A child needs a nurturing and stable environment in order to prosper and grow. A child born to a single teenage mother is much less likely to succeed and have decreased cognitive skills.

Teen Pregnancy Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States has declined greatly within the past few years, it is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. These rates are still higher in the 1990's than they were only a decade ago. The United State's teenage birthrate exceeds that of most other industrialized nations, even though American teenagers are no more sexually active than teenagers are in Canada or Europe. Recent statistics concerning the teen birthrates are alarming. About 560,000 teenage girls give birth each year.