Teen Pregnany

Do you know that one in three teen girls in the United States is estimated to get pregnant at least once before age 20? Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young girl can face. It completely changed their entire lives. There are many things teens stress about when finding out they are pregnant. How am I going to finish school? What will my classmates think? How am I going to tell my family? After doing some research I have learned that there are many different resources out there to help pregnant teens. The tools to successfully prevent pregnancy are all there, but many adolescents do not utilize these tools.

In my high school alone there were 32 girls in my grade that had either had a baby or were pregnant by the time I graduated. 10 out of those 32 girls actually graduated. Even though sex education is offered through school, there are still many teens getting pregnant. There are a few choices that teen mothers have to make:



1.) Some teen mothers decide to continue their pregnancy and then choose adoption for their baby. Adoption may be the best choice for the baby and the teen parents. There are many adoption agencies and types of adoption. Some teens are able to meet the parents who wish to adopt the baby.

2.) Many teens decide to keep their babies. Some marry the baby’s father and raise their baby together. Sometimes the baby's grandparents or other family members help raise it so that the teen mother can stay in school and work. But it requires a lot of additional hard work for a teen parent to finish school and get a good job. Children of teen mothers face greater risk of poverty, behavioral problems, poor academic performance, incarceration, and teen pregnancy, so good parenting skills are very important.

3.) Some teen pregnancies end in abortion. Abortions can have complications. There may be emotional consequences, as well: some women say that they feel sad and some use more alcohol or drugs than before. Some states require teens to have their parent's permission to get an abortion. To understand the scope of this situation, consider these numbers: In 2002, there were over 750,000 teen pregnancies in the United States, including over 215,000 teen abortions.

Some teen girls see things in magazines or movies and think that they want what those girls have. Take a look at the movie “Juno” and then all the girls in Glouster, Ma that decided to all get pregnant. There was also Jaime Lynn Spears who had a baby last year. Many girls looked at her and said she is so young “If she can do it, why can’t I”. I feel that there is not much that school can do to help prevent teen pregnancy. I feel that it is more the parents role to explain the consequences of sex than the schools. Students (most) do not take sex education seriously. I think that it should be more than parents responsibility than the schools.