Teen Pregnancy In The United States

Teen pregnancy is surprisingly decreasing over the years. According to Farber, “the most recent studies have shown that there has been a decrease in the rate of pregnancies among all teenagers and among sexually active teenagers (16). Although this issue seems is decreasing this is still a problem faced by many teenage girls today. Each year, 7.5 percent of all 15-19 year old women become pregnant (Maynard 1). Not only does this issue affects the pregnant teen but it also affects the economy. Teen pregnancy affects graduation rates. Many teen mothers cite pregnancy as the key reason of them not finishing school. Only 40 percent of teen mothers finish high school (Teen Pregnancy Affects Graduation Rates). The 60 percent of teen mothers

Teen pregnancy falls into the category of pregnancies in girls age 19 or younger (NIH). Although statistics have shown a decrease, the number of teen pregnancy in the U.S. is still relatively high compared to the rest of the world. Sexual health is one of the top priorities in early adolescence health in the United States. Consequences of having sex at a young age generally results in unsafe sex practices. The consequences can be due to the lack of knowledge about sex education, and access to birth control/contraception (NIH, 2005). Due to the lack of knowledge and access to birth control, adolescents involve in risk taking when they start to explore sexual intimate relationships.

Over the last few decades the rates in teen pregnancy have been a debate; did they rise over the past few years or did they actually decline? Contrary to some doctors and politicians the numbers associated with teen pregnancy have decline over the last couple of years. Although there are still people out there who believe this to be an issue it’s made more of an issue than it actually is. The ads and commercials are set out to scare teen-agers into believing that were at an all time high for this issue, but realistically its actually the exact opposite. Teen pregnancy rates haven’t dropped on there over the course of the years. There are a few major factors that have contributed a great deal to this change. Those changes include but are not limited to: more resources being available to these teenagers to prevent themselves from becoming pregnant, society is more open to talking about this issue as well as the religion and culture change aspect of families today. Despite the beliefs of others, teen pregnancy rates are at an all time low for the first time in decades.

Across America, many teen pregnancy are becoming popular. Many students have been educated on this topic, while other have not. When teens make the faulty decision, they do not know about the consequences that come with it. Consequences end up in having a child, and having a child is a lot of responsibility. Teens tend not to have much responsibility as important as taking care of a child.

Many believe the children are solely responsible for their carelessness that results in early pregnancy. Looking at this problem more broadly, one can see all of the social changes that influence teen pregnancy. For example, the media promotes sex and relationships. According to the RAND Health researcher, Jeffrey Wasserman, children ages 12-18 who saw the most sex on television were twice as likely to initiate intercourse within the next year as to those who saw the least amount of sex in the media (2017). Many television shows and movies contain sexual scenes, but most of them don’t explain the risks of sexual activity. Moreover, teen pregnancy has become more widely accepted. While many still believe it’s wrong, this problem has become unfortunate but acceptable. With shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, the mass media even rewards these teenages for their early pregnancies. The acceptance of early pregnancy has increased, but people are still embarrassed to talk about sex to children and teenagers. Teen pregnancy can be prevented, and it starts with a change in

One major problem in America’s society today is teen pregnancy rates. In fact, “teen sexual activity, pregnancy, and childbearing are associated with substantial social, economic, and health costs” (Sedgwick). However, this problem is not one without a solution. The rise of teen pregnancy rates can be prevented and reversed by providing better access to birth control for teens, eliminating the negative connotation that accompanies abstinence, and implementing more efficient sex education in public schools.

Based on the readily available images broadcast from films, MTV and other mass media, one might assume that the teen pregnancy epidemic is on the rise. In one respect, this health risk condition has rarely been more culturally visible than it is right now. However, it does bear noting that teen pregnancy has actually been on the decline in the United States over the last two decades. According to the source provided by Sheets (2012), "from 1990 to 2008, the teen pregnancy rate decreased 42 percent (from 117 to 68 pregnancies per 1,000 teen girls)."

One of the main reasons for high rates of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. is the continuation of ineffective abstinence based education (Bell, 2009) and not allowing teenagers to make abortion related decisions. In the U.S. Eighty two percent of the teenage pregnancy is unintended and 37 % of total unintended pregnancies result in abortion. Teenagers choose to abort babies because of shame, staying focused on career, unstable financial status to support babies and not getting emotional and economic support from parents. Twenty two percent of pregnant teenagers choose not to tell their parents (ACLU, 2001).

An ongoing epidemic in the United Sates is teen pregnancy. In America, our society is run down by many problems. Most are caused by the older generation, but this problem has risen with the younger generation around the age of 15-19. The peak of the teen pregnancy trend started in 1990 when 60 teen girls out of 1,000 had a teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). For every 1,000 females in 2013, on average only 27 out of the 1,000 had gone through teen birth ("About Teen Pregnancy.”). Over the years, it seems that the trend is winding down and that less and less teens appear to becoming pregnant. In 2013, the teen pregnancy rate decreased by 10% since 2012 and 57% 1990 ("Teen Birth Rate | The National Campaign.”).

Teenage pregnancy is a growing problem in the United States today. As of 2010, 57.84% of 15-19 year old girls will become pregnant, which is especially high as compared to the rates of other developed countries. (Kost, 3) Why are unplanned pregnancy rates in teenagers so high? There are various factors that contribute to these high teen pregnancy rates, but one major factor is the type of sexual education that teenagers receives. While attention to abstinence in sexual education can be beneficial, it is when sexual education focuses solely on abstinence that teen pregnancy rates increase. Comprehensive sex education in schools has been shown to lower the rates of teen pregnancy more than abstinence only sex education has, and therefore should

In the 1950s, the frequency of teenage births in the United States was already high, and since that, time has decreased, although the number of births outside marriage has increased. Thus, in 1990 the rate was 61.8 births, pregnancy rate - 116.9 per 1,000. The incidence of teenage pregnancy has decreased significantly in the 1990s. This decline is observed in all racial groups, but Teenagers, African Americans and Hispanic teens remain higher frequency compared with Americans of European and Asian origin. Guttmacher Institute, about 25% of this decline carried her share of sexual abstinence and 75% - on the effective use of contraceptives. However, in 2006 the first time in 14 years, the incidence of teenage births has increased. This would imply that the incidence rates of teenage pregnancy are also on the rise, but marked by the rise could be linked to other sources: for example, reducing the number of abortions or a decrease in the number of abortions.

In today's society there are many problems that are out of our hands and that we as a nation cannot control. Though some can be solved though some basic steps and principles of government. Teen pregnancy is becoming an over-bearing problem in our world today. There are more teenagers having babies outside of marriage in america than in any other country in the world. This puts a burden on our economy by having more mouths to feed and not enough money or recources to feed them, the teenager having the babys education and even the future education of the baby.It has been proven than women who become pregnant before the age of eighteen rarley go on to graduate high school. Also it has been studied and we found that the child of a teenage mother often has many learning disabilities. The problem of overpopulation is already in our midst. By the year 2050 we expect the population to be

"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.

Teen pregnancy is a very controversial social issue and the vast majority of Americans consider the outrageous rate of teen pregnancies a severe issue, certainly a problematic occurrence that is believed to be a moral decline in our country. Teenagers are physiologically capable of reproducing but not emotionally or financially prepared to be parents at such a tender age. Through various research studies a plethora of determinants has pin pointed teens unprecedented pregnancies. One cause of this problem is the apparent indication of social separation or disadvantage. Within this issue you would find poverty, single parent households, educational disadvantages on the parents behalf, a lack family/parental support, and unemployment. A child’s educational performance, inappropriate sexual acts, and inferior apprehensions about their futures play a vital role in teen pregnancies as well. Amongst the listed disadvantages the three that take precedent are lacks of family communication, sexual abuse, and poverty. Furthermore, teen mothers do not fit the ideal ideology of the normative scheduling of motherhood, therefore, ultimately resulting in negative consequences for them and society. What needs to be understood is, as to why the numbers of teens are becoming parents at such a vernal age.

The teen pregnancy rate had decreased by the maximum of about 55 percent. Most teen birth rates had also gone down about 64 percent, but yet teen pregnancies and birth rate for teenagers ages 15-19 in the U.S still remains one of the highest comparable countries. Due to parenthood, most of teen moms drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate to get their diploma. Sexually active teens that don’t use any type of protection has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year, 84 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned.