Teen Pregnancy Rates example essay topic

Teen Pregnancy Teen pregnancy is detrimental to society and needs to be addresses, because approximately one million teenagers become pregnant a year (Health communities. com 1). Teenage unwed mothers have been a dilemma in the United States for numerous years. Although the rate of teenage pregnancy has lessened, the problems branching from teenage pregnancies continue to distress the nation. In Georgia, 66% of high school students reported being sexually active in 1994 (Wiechman 7). Many teens are sexually involved and so not take the time out to protect themselves.

In 1995, over 29,000 of Georgia's teens became pregnant (Wiechman 7). Phrases like "teenage pregnancy,"teens having babies", and everyone needs to get involved" are common subjects in society's conversations. The increase in teen sexual activities is also becoming a problem in our society. Four out of every ten girls in the United States become pregnant before the age of twenty (Nation's Health 2). Fifty-six percent of the 905,000 teenage pregnancies in 1996 resulted in births, 14% of those were miscarried, and another 30% resulted in abortions. Only one third of the 905,000 pregnancies were planned (Henshaw 5).

Most parents who have close relationships with their children and do not hesitate to punish their children have been able to keep their children out of these statistics. This is possible because the parents with close relationships with their children are easier to make their children do as they say, most of the time the children are quicker to go and talk to their parents about what is going on in their lives. Teen pregnancy is not the big issue it is the repartition and the pattern that follows teen pregnancies. Twenty-five percent of teenage girls who give birth have another baby within two years (Health communities. com 4). Thirteen percent of makes born to teenage mothers are more likely to be incarcerated and 22% of girls are more likely to become teenage mothers (Health communities. com 6). Studies show that teen mothers who so not return to school after giving birth are less likely to instill the value of education to their children, creating a pattern (Hillard 2).

Most teens that become pregnant a second time knows that there is someone there to take care of the child foe them. Majority of the teens do not care for their first child; therefore, they have more because they do not have to deal with the children. The teen just take the child to someone who they know will take care of them and leave their responsibility behind. Most of the time it is not the girls that are conceited or overly confident that are getting pregnant, but the girls with low confidence in themselves and their educational future. There are also those whose parents that have low level of education. In today's society many teenagers think of becoming an adult involves being in sexual relationships, but they do not consider the responsibilities that comes with sexual relationships.

Teen's lack of knowledge of sex and contraceptives is also a growing reason why more teens today are becoming pregnant. Health communities. com also stated that teenage births are associated with lower annual income families which rely on welfare (8). Most teens have sex because of their friends being sexually active and do not want to feel left out. Peer pressure is also a leading reason why teens are becoming more sexually active, resulting in high pregnancy rates.

Most teenagers that come from a family with high morals and a religious background are less likely to become sexual involved. Preventing teen pregnancy can be done in numerous ways because parenthood is becoming a major setback in education. Teenagers can practice abstinence or obtain special methods of birth control. In today's society, there are several methods of birth controls that a teenager can use to prevent pregnancy. Parents need to encourage their child that having sex at an early age will have consequences. People tend to look at only the girls when discussing teen pregnancy rates when the boys are also playing a major role in the conception of the child.

Many teens take having a baby at an early age as a joke, without knowing there are many prose and cons in child care. Man people today feel teenage pregnancy is come other person's responsibility, but in reality it is everyone's problem. One of the the reason teen pregnancy is so illusive to many people is that most teenagers by the age of fifteen have had sex; abstinence isn't part of their vocabulary. While most industrialized nations have teenage pregnancy under control, the United States does not because a million teenage girls are having babies every year. Why is it so hard to control? It is hard to control because teen pregnancy assumes many different things.

The first is a belief that teenage pregnancy is only a minor problem. A million pregnant teen is not a minor. The second involves covering up the problem because people don't want to deal with it. It becomes someone else's problem or gets shoved in the corner. Why shouldn't teen pregnancy be every person's problem? Why should it be hidden" the third is much more obvious to many people, but not to the teen-child having a baby.

This problem includes the cost of having and raising a baby, spending nights pacing the floor with a sick and crying child, providing food, clothing, and shelter for another life, educating, and taking responsibility foe another life, and, most of all, putting that child's life and needs before the needs and wants of the mother. Everyday, a million children are having babies who are still children themselves. These children must grow up and take on adult responsibilities or give up and become just another statistic.