Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is an issue in United States, it is one issue that should wait until teens are married and know what they are doing with their lives. This issue came about in the early in the 1950’s – 1960’s. Teen pregnancy is a teenage girl between the ages 13-19 (girls who haven’t reached adulthood) having unwanted or wanted babies. Janet Bode once stated in her book, “Emotions run everywhere, scared, sad, disappointment and preparation for what is about to happen” (Bode 51). If we do not act now, teen pregnancy will be out the roof. Teen pregnancy needs a stop put to it no matter what, teens are still children themselves and they are still learning how to take care of themselves:

Each year, more than 600,000 teens become pregnant, and 3 in 10 will become pregnant before they reach age 20 (Secure et al., 2015). Rates are higher among black and Hispanic teens, with 4 in 10 becoming pregnant by 20 years of age, compared with 2 in 10 white teens (Secure et al., 2015). Even though over time the overall rate of teen pregnancy has decreased, it’s still very high and has a large impact on the teen parents as well as the families.

In 2015, there were 229,715 babies born to teen women (age 15-19) (CDC, 2017). Teen birth rate is at a record low, from 2014 to 2015, US birth rate for teens dropped 8% (CDC, 2015). Birth rate dropped 9% for teens 15-17 years and &7% for teens for teens 18-19 years old (CDC, 2015). Specifically, within races there has been a 10% decrease amongst Asian/ Pacific Islanders, 9% decrease for Blacks/African Americans, 8% decrease for Hispanics, and 6% for American Indian/ Alaska Natives (CDC, 2017). Although teen parent rate has decreased, US teens parent rate is higher than other western nations (CDC, 2017).

In 2015, the national teen birth rate for non-Hispanic white females was 90,833. The teen birth rate for non-Hispanic black females was 50,039. Along with the teen birth rates for Hispanic 80,364, American Indian/Alaska Native 4,738, and Asian/Pacific Islander 4,297. The national percentage of teen pregnancies to girls under the age of 15 was 1 percent. Girls age 15-17 was 26 percent and girls age 18-19 was 73percent.

Teen pregnancy is still a major issue regardless of the declining pregnancy rate. In 2006 birthrates among teenage girls age ranging from 15-17 were more than 3 times as high as

According to U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Teen pregnancy rates by age, racial, ethnic group, and region of the country. Most teenagers who have gave birth are between 18 or younger; in 2014, 73 percent were 18 and 19 years old teens. Birth rates are increasing in the Hispanic community. Latino are experiencing these issues due to the lack of communication

In twenty twelve, there were twenty nine point four births for every one thousand adolescent females ages fifteen through nineteen. That equals out to three hundred thousand three hundred eighty eight babies born to females in this age group. (Trends in Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing, 2014). The twenty nine point four birth rate was a decline of six percent from two thousand eleven. (Trends in Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing, 2014). Many different things affect teen birthrate, things like age, racial and ethnic group, and region of country. Teen birthrate is higher in African Americans and Hispanics than in Caucasians. According to (Trends in Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing, 2014), about eighty two percent of these teen pregnancies are unplanned, meaning that most teens are having intercourse just to have it, and are not planning on, or ready for a baby. In my opinion, you should only have intercourse if you fully understand the outcome, and are ready to have a child or are prepared for all outcomes. An estimated fifty nine percent ended in a live birth, fourteen percent of birth ended in miscarriage and twenty six percent ended in abortion. That

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)."

There is no question that teen pregnancy is a worldwide issue in today’s society. Every year thousands of young, unprepared teenage girls face the decision whether to become a mother or to give their baby up for adoption for a better life. Some mothers choose to give their baby up because they feel as if they could not give the baby what is needed to have a good life. If you have ever heard of the show “16 and Pregnant” both sides of the situation have happened. Some girls on the show choose to be a mother and others choose to give their baby up for adoption, because they feel it is what is best for their child. The big question is

A 1984 study showed that 53% of 18-year old girls were having sex. A similar study showed that 66% of 18-year-old boys were doing to the same. Less than half of both boys and girls used any protection. This caused 4 out of 10 teenage girls to become pregnant before they were 20. Most young girls were single mothers between the ages 18-29.To add to this, nearly half of the 892,000 teenage pregnancies ended in abortion. Teenagers with poor school grades were more likely to be sexually experienced, while those with good grades were less likely.

In the year of 2016, it is very common to have at least one pregnant student attend the high schools. U.S Teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates are at an historic low , or at least that was it statistics show. Although in 2010, some of the 614,000 pregnancies were teenagers the ages of 15-19.

A topic in American society that has proved to be an ongoing, and growing issue is that none other than teen pregnancy. In recent years, teen pregnancy rates have been increasing, which ultimately led to the topics increase of public and media attention. In American society teen pregnancy is often associated with negligence, as well as being irresponsible. In American society sex education for children is underdeveloped and instead society tends to use fear and shame to highlight/combat the dangers of unsafe or underage sex. American society uses fear to instill the idea that if you become pregnant as a teenager you are a burden to society. Along with fear society loves to shame its young women who have unfortunately stumbled upon the

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 1981 the birthrate for women aged 15-19 was 28.2 births per 1000 women in that age bracket. In 2012, the birthrate for the same age bracket was 16.1 per 1000 women. As seen in the graph below, over that time the birthrate for teens has been declining with no significant peaks.

"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."

An author of the book Teen pregnancy said in one of his quotes that “Teenage years are already feel as you're being judged by everyone, add a big belly and it all gets worse.’’ It was the first day of our last year of high school. Everyone had these mixed feelings about the first day. Students were excited, nervous, lost in thoughts, and what not. I was standing near my locker, texting my best friend . Suddenly the front gate opened and the girl named Alice entered and what I saw totally blew off my mind. The most quiet and shy girl of the high school was three months pregnant and she was walking through the halls with this huge belly, with scared and kind of embarrassed look on her face. On the top of that, It didn’t take more than five minutes for the news to be all over the school. I personally had varied and diversified feelings towards her, I was shocked, feeling sorry, but still appreciated her decision of coming back to school despite of fact that she was pregnant. Unfortunately, I don’t think everyone else had same thoughts about her, because honestly people are full of judgements especially at high schools! As it is rightly said that, new life brings the new memories and beginnings to the lives of those involved with the child itself, and although there has never been a sight more joyous and exciting than when a mother holds her own child for the very first time,but we can’t neglect that there is still a proper time and state for pregnancies to happen. The