Teen Pregnancy Essay

Many studies show that MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” led to fewer teen births. It is thought to be that when teens tune into the show, they learn to practice safer sex. “16 and Pregnant” was named one of the best ways to campaign about the issue of teen pregnancy. The show was a way to attack the issue of teen pregnancy head on. Comparing to all fully developed countries, the U.S, has the highest rates of teen pregnancy. This was seen as a major problem to many that was aware of the problem. Even though the number of teen pregnancies was high, there was nothing really being done to expose the harsh reality of being a teen mom. Lauren Dolgen, President of MTV’s series development, felt as if the situation needed to be addressed. Her goal was to give teen moms out there a chance to have a voice and to tell their stories.

The United States of America is known for many of its outlandish and outrageous statistics in comparison to other countries. Statistics regarding obesity, homicide rates, and political issues have displayed many of the nation?s weak points. However, the amount of teen pregnancy has become so excessive that it is becoming a cry for help and a statistic that is greatly standing out and can no longer be ignored. In 1999 about one million teenagers experienced a pregnancy. This rate was twice the amount in England, Wales, and Canada and nine times greater than that of the Netherlands and Japan. About 78% of these American teenage pregnancies were said to be unplanned.

It is very common for young adults in the United States to become young parents as early as fifteen years old. In 2014, approximately 24 young women out of a thousand got pregnant from the ages of 15-19. Although this is about a 9% drop sing 2013, teen pregnancy is still a major issue among young, developing adolescents (CDC, 2016). This lifestyle shift has raised many personal concerns within young mothers and fathers about how they will raise their child, but most importantly, how they will prevent another unwanted or unprepared pregnancy. Although prevention in the form of birth control and educational programs are available to young adults, it is common for teenage parents to become pregnant once again shortly after having their first

Each year around 90,000 adolescents become pregnant in the United States. Around 51% of adolescents pregnancies end in live births, 35% end up in induced abortions, and 14% result in miscarriage or stillbirth (Frick, 2007). Historically, the highest teen pregnancy rates in the United States were during the 1950’s and 1960’s before the legalization of abortion and the development of many the current forms of contraception(Frick, 2007). Rates enlarged steadily until 1991; since then, the birth rate among teenagers has decreased 35% for 15-17 year olds(Frick, 2007). Three in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That is nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. In 2013, there were 26.6 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, or 274,641 babies born to females in this age group. To prevent teen pregnancy, we should teach them abstinence, safe sex by using protection, and communication skills to discuss prevention from peer pressure.

Effectively preventing teenage pregnancies would not only spare the health and well being of many infants and young girls, but public costs related to this issue would decline significantly (since costs are "currently estimated at $10.9 billion" worldwide) (Hamilton, 2012). Even though global teen birth rates have been steadily decreasing over the years (as seen in figure 1), the birth rate United States still prevails as one of the highest out of all industrialized countries, as one can see in table 1 above (Hamilton, 2012). Figure 2 shows the results of a survey conducted on teens in Austin, Texas, which provides a clear indication of what specific risk factors today 's youth face when it comes to preventing pregnancies. These include, but are not limited to: a lack of access to contraception, a lack of supportive partners, and a lack of education about contraceptive use (Brazeal, 2015). All sexually active teenage girls, regardless of race, wealth, or location, are at risk for an unintended pregnancy. This intervention will hopefully aid in reducing the number of women affected by this issue.

Teen pregnancy is a major problem in the United States. There are significantly more teenage pregnancies in the United States than all other developing countries (Cleo & Moore, 1995). According to The Complete and Authoritative Guide: Caring for Your Teenager, out of every five women under twenty, two will become pregnant. Teen pregnancy rates have increased 23% from 1972 to 1990 (Napier, 1997) In order to come to a solution it is important to examine why teenage pregnancy is so high in the United States. When analyzing teen pregnancy, an effective way to get to the root of the problem is using the critical component of the sociological imagination. Critically, the two most prevalent ways to look at teen pregnancy are through a

Teenage and unplanned pregnancy is always a trending topic in society. The United States has made substantial progress in reducing teenage birth rates during the past several decades, but rates remain high, particularly compared with rates in other developed countries (Godfrey, 2015).With the rates being so high in the United States still, we still need to continue promoting prevention of teenage pregnancy so that there will be a continue of decline in rates. There are many ways to prevent teenage or unplanned

The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $9 billion annually. Thirty-one percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 -- about 750,000 a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens. The teen birth rate has declined slowly but steadily from 1991 to 2005 with a decline of 35 percent for those aged 15 to 19. These recent declines reverse the 23-percent rise in the teenage birth rate from 1986 to 1991. The largest decline since 1991

"Over one million teenage girls become pregnant each year. In the next 24 hours, about 3,312 girls will become pregnant. In addition, 43% of all adolescents become pregnant before the age of 20. These are incredible statistics when you consider that there are only 31 million females. 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."

How many pregnant teens have there been? Over the years more girls are becoming teen moms. In Oklahoma teen pregnancy has become a problem. Recently Oklahoma has had a pregnancy rate of 47.5% (Tulsa World). Not only is it an issue in Oklahoma but an issue in the United States as a whole. The lack of awareness and how to prevent pregnancy is a reason to blame for the increasing numbers. The more we don’t make people aware of the increasing teen pregnancy rate and how to prevent then the numbers will continue to rise into an astonishing amount. Helping teens know of the different ways to prevent pregnancy can make an enormous difference in teen pregnancy. The issues that have an effect on teen pregnancy rates have been to the use of

Some causes of Teen pregnancy are absent parenting, lack of knowledge, substance abuse, living in poverty and peer pressure. The number of teens within the ages of 14-19 has substantially decreased over the last several years. While examining the causes of teen pregnancy, new methods of prevention can be defined. If there are different methods identified for preventing teen pregnancy than the number of teens can go down more.

Pregnancies are a wonderful thing. Just imagine being able to create another human being and bringing it into the world. Although this may be what the majority of mothers think, teen moms may have a different perspective. They might have been forced into pregnancy and the child may be a reoccurring thought of what happened to her. Chances are the teen will love her baby in the long run, but in the beginning the teen most likely had different views. Teen pregnancy is a worldwide problem that needs to be educated properly. The reason why most teen pregnancies occur because teens aren’t educated enough. Granted they might become curious or they don’t care, but they at least need to be properly educated on the matter and know exactly what they

Teenage pregnancy has been a common public health problem in society, particularly in America. When an individual hears that 15 year old girl is pregnant, people perceive it as a negative connotation. The average age to have a child today is 28 years old (Jewkes, Morrell, & Christofides, 2009).  Adolescent pregnancies are preventable, but are still bound to happen today and in the future (Langille, 2007). This is a problem is society due to teenagers not being able to support a child and also not being physically able to carry the baby without health risks (Schneider, 2014). Unplanned pregnancies for adolescents effect a woman financially, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

“Each year in the U.S. almost one million teenagers become pregnant--at enormous costs to themselves, their children, and society”. (Pregnant Teen Help, Teen Pregnancy Statistics) Some would argue that teen pregnancy is all glorified. Other individuals would protest that it is too influential. Teen pregnancy is a rising social problem in the United States and among other countries. Teen pregnancy is now being publicized as multi media corporations, with shows such as “16 &ump; Pregnant”, “Teen Mom”, “Maury”, “Secret Life of the American Teenager”, and “Juno”. All of which concentrate on teen pregnancy. These shows or movies could be informational for young people. However, the shows display an altered reality that teen pregnancy is easy,

"Teen pregnancy in the United States: In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years old, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years. Still, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist (cdc.gov)." As teenagers (in the United States), we are peer pressured or tempted to try new things. Some teens tend to try out drugs, and alcohol. However, some are having unprotected sex in which, is leads to having babies. This is called, teenage pregnancy. This has caused the United States to create records based off of the statistics and facts given from, researchers across the United States. In order to help prevent teenage pregnancy in the United States, teenagers must understand why, having a baby now isn’t such a smart move on their part.