Teen Pregnancy and Abortion in the US

2189 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Teen pregnancy and socioeconomic status

Teen Pregnancy and Abortion in the US

Teen pregnancy and abortion are two contemporary social issues within our nation today. With raising rates in both matters, it is easy to see why they may be such controversy. In sociology, thinking about the way humans interact with one another and in their worlds is important. With these two presented topics, focusing on gender inequalities, poverty, group prediction and social location may have a substantial amount of influence on the increased rates we are seeing within the last few years and present time on teen pregnancy and abortion.

It is important to remember that when thinking sociologically, we can only predict what a group may do versus what an individual’s actions may be. Especially when talking about abortions and teen pregnancy, statistics of a group of people may help us to predict what type of people will get pregnant, and who will choose to have an abortion. However they will not show the exceptions to the rule, or how an individual within or outside of the group may behave, but rather just predict pattern behavior based on different influences.

Teen pregnancy within the United States has been consistently higher than other developing countries for the last century, according to statistics and research done by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Their statistics showed that “In 2012, there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent female’s ages 15-19, or 305,388 babies born to females in this age group. Nearly eighty-nine percent of these births occurred outside of marriage.” Furthermore, the Health and Human Services department was able to list some possible sociological factors that may have possibly contributed. These included age, race and ethnic grou...

... middle of paper ...

...ve not been prepared to overcome.

Works Cited

Averett, Susan L., Daniel I. Rees, and Laura M. Argys. "The Impact of

Government Policies and Neighborhood Characteristics on Teenage Sexual Activity and Contraceptive Use." American Public Health Association -. American Journal of Public Health, Nov. 2002. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

Kempner, Martha. "Poverty Causes Teen Parenting, Not the Other Way Around." RH

Reality Check. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

Macionis, John J. Society: The Basics. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,

2004. Print. East Tennessee State University.

Neiterman, Elena. "Constructing and Deconstructing Teen Pregnancy as a Social

Problem." 8.3 (2012): n. pag. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

"The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services." Office of Adolescent Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Teen Pregnancy in Illinois

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    In some regions of the world such as China, a one child policy was established due to overpopulation (Jian) . One of the reasons for overpopulation was because of the vast number of births from exceptionally young couples. Locally, in 2009, 1,991 children were born to women between the ages of fifteen and nineteen in Rock Island ("Illinois Teen Births by County") which was a shocking amount due to the dramatic drop in teen pregnancies nationwide (See Figure 1 below).

    Read More

  • The Social Issue Of Teen Pregnancy

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    Teen pregnancy is a major issue in society today. In 2010, an estimated 614,400 U.S. teenagers became pregnant, approximately 89,300 had miscarriages, and 157,500 had legal abortions. Teens are having unprotected sex without knowing the consequences of the choices that the are making. Teens believe that sex is something new that they can try, so they can be popular like their peers. These accusations are wrong, having unprotected sex has major consequences, and by having unprotected sex these teens could be changing their lives forever. Who is to fault for these teen pregnancies? Is in the parents fault, the teens fault or is it our communities fault all together? I believe providing more information and awareness about teen pregnancy in our schools and community will reduce the number of teen pregnancies.

    Read More

  • Pro-Choice Doesn't Mean Pro-Abortion

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Teenagers who become mothers have harsh prospects for the future. Teenagers obtaining abortions are 20% and girls under 15 accounts for 1.2%. They are much more likely to leave of school; receive insufficient prenatal care; rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or en...

    Read More

  • Teen Pregnancy Within The United States

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    The District of Columbia is the 23rd most population city in the United States with a population of 658,893 (Census). According to UNICEF, teen pregnancy is defined as “A teenage girl, usually within the ages of 13-19, becoming pregnant” ((Link 1). Nationally in the United States, there has been a steady decline of teen pregnancy within the past decade. However, it is not occurring in the District of Columbia, specifically Southeast DC (Ward 7 and 8) which includes areas such as: Lincoln Heights, Twining, Anacostia and Woodland. As of 2011, DC was ranked number nine in the nation for the highest rate of teen pregnancy. For the total amount of births, only 908 were from young women who were below the age of 20 in Washington DC. About 879 were from young women that were around high school ages 15-19. Specifically, Southeast DC is a low-income area, with approximately ¼ of teen mothers going on welfare within three years after their child’s birth (Link 2). As of 2012, out of the 790 births from teenage mothers, more than half, or 457 of the births mainly occurred in the Southeast DC area (Link4). This area has been plagued through various social determinants of health. This includes having repeated cycles of poverty, lack of comprehensive sexual education, especially in regards to contraception and a lot of violence occurring as a result of crimes. Ward 7 has approximately 95% of its citizens being Black and 2.3% of their citizens are Hispanic(Link 5). 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...

    Read More

  • Decrease Of Teen Pregnancy Rate

    454 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Race and Abortion

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the United States, there are about 1.5 million abortions that are performed each year. This averages out to every one in four pregnancies ending in abortion. Out of all the women that get abortions, eighty percent are unmarried and sixty-three percent are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four (Misra and Panigrahi, 1998). The younger group (fifteen to seventeen) is comprised mostly of white teenagers whereas the older group (eighteen and older) is made up of more African American teenagers (Ezzard, Cates, Kramer, and Tietze, 1982). With abortion becoming such an important subject based on its commonality and significance in the political sector, it is no wonder why social scientist have done so much research on it. Researchers have fo...

    Read More

  • The Effect of Sex in the Media

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    America has one of the largest pregnancy rates in teens in the whole world (“Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media”). Pregnant teens have to make many hard choices. They must decided to keep the baby or not., and to continue on with school. or not. Teens moms can lose everything they’ve worked for after one bad decision. Sex is in teens lives because of media influence.

    Read More

  • Case Study Analysis: Issues Around Abortion

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    In America, one million teenagers get pregnant every year (National Abortion Federation, 2003). Of these pregnancies, 78% are unplanned because these teenagers start having sex at a very young age and are unaware of ways to prevent pregnancies. Thirty five percent of the pregnant teenagers chose to abort, as they fear that the consequences of the pregnancy might cause significant effects to their lives. The problems that come with teenage pregnancies include dropping out of school, receiving inadequate prenatal care, developing health problems, relying on public assistance to raise a child, and probably divorcing their partners. In most states, the law allows pregnant teenagers to take their babies for adoption without consulting their parents. The same laws allow the teenagers to have an abortion but require parental notification or consent before carrying out the procedure. These laws prove biased as they favor one resolution over the other, as they force some to bear babies they do not want by restricting their options.

    Read More

  • The Problem Of Teen Pregnancy

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teen pregnancy in our society has started to become a normal occurrence. It has been stated that “[t]een pregnancy is rated at 11% of all cases of childbirth in the world. Statistics show that 3 in 10 American girls will get pregnant at least once before the age of 20” ("11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy"). Babies born from teen

    Read More

  • Abortion in the United States

    3510 Words  | 8 Pages

    Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)

    Read More

  • Women Health: The Legalization of Abortion

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    Moreover, the legalization of abortion gives families a choice on the timing and the number of children that they would like to have. Scholars have noted that even in instances where individuals take precautions, accidents do and can happen. Of course, such accidents do not present a challenge to some families. However, other families may consider such events catastrophic. Indeed, unplanned and unintended pregnancy has the capacity to disrupt stability, increase tensions and push individuals way below economic survival.

    Read More

  • The Tragedy of Teenage Abortion

    1518 Words  | 4 Pages

    In society today, teens are taught by the television and the media that pre-marital sex is not a bad thing. This problem is leading to many teenage pregnancies, that then lead to abortion. All over the world teens are faced with many challenges in their everyday lives. Sex is being portrayed as extremely appealing in the media, but what they don't show is the pregnancies and the unborn child that never asked to be created in the first place that is being discarded. Abortion is in no way acceptable, it is murder of an unborn child.

    Read More

  • Theories Related to Teen Pregnancy

    2543 Words  | 6 Pages

    The concept of comprehensive social intervention has been defined as the process of identifying social problems in an attempt to eradicate them. In looking at the broad range of social characteristics and the behavior associated with teen pregnancy, it is obvious that the emphases placed on the effort to recognize and alleviate teen pregnancy can be celebrated through the effectiveness of education, family planning, and abstinence. However, the attempt to analyze and deal with the cause-and-effect relationship with teen pregnancy is an attempt in understanding the social world itself. In 2006, statistics show that there was a significant increase in teen pregnancy after a decade long decrease. The potential for understanding this increase motivates us to look beyond simple explanations for cause-and-effect behavior and to look at what interactions may be occurring between variables that result in specific behaviors or social conditions. What is it that influences behavior? In looking at teen pregnancy in the realm of the family, it is evident that a large number of family structures have evolved, or perhaps devolved, into a variety of combinations which challenge responsible parents to consistently expose their children to the role models and the types of behaviors that are important for their children to emulate as they mature. People are molded by circumstances and experiences, all of which can positively or negatively influence our behavior.

    Read More

  • Teenage Pregnancy Essay

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    Teen pregnancy is the term used in reference to those young ladies who get pregnant before attainment of legal adulthood that is between 13-18 years age group. It is a circumstance under which a teenager becomes pregnant unintentionally affecting her life-span development. Teen pregnancy is a prevalent factor among many teenage women especially in their 16th to 19th birthday. Pregnant teenagers are today faced with many obstetrics problems similar to those of the women in their age gap of 20s and 30s. Additional medical concerns are experienced by pregnant teenagers in the developing countries especially women aged 14 or younger. A wide range of teenage pregnancy is unplanned and therefore more risk factors are experienced especially the socioeconomic risks. In the developing countries, teen pregnancies lead to social issues and life complications due to early motherhood. The associated social issues include lower educational levels, increasingly poverty level and other poor life outcomes. In the developed countries, teenage pregnancy occurs outside of marriage, thus leads to the development of social stigma in variety of cultures and communities (Carlson, 2009).

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech Outline On Teenage Pregnancy

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis Statement: Within America, there is a teen pregnancy epidemic across all socioeconomic backgrounds, presenting commonalities as to the causes and ramifications of adolescents emerging as a growing parental population.

    Read More

More about Teen Pregnancy and Abortion in the US

Open Document