Teen Pregnancy Forum - Pregnancy Prevention

Note: no one take offence to this please...It was just a thing I had to write for school. Can someone please help me come up with a conclusion.

Teenage pregnancy is a problem that is plaguing our culture because it is becoming more and more acceptable. Society is starting to realize that more teenagers are sexually active than ever before. Teenage pregnancy is normally not planned and will change the person’s life forever. This is becoming a common place for girls in american high schools and colleges. Teenage pregnancy is an important issue because it affects all of our lives. It affects some more than others, but it does play a role in everyone’s life. Almost every recent high school graduate can say that they had a girl that was pregnant in their school. Many people end up helping the girl raise the baby. If they don’t help she can go on welfare and your tax dollars will pay to help her. That is how it can affect everyone, including you. I was once that girl, roaming the halls of the high school but unfortunately my pregnancy ended up in a miscarriage. If I was a little bit more educated on sex, and if my parents didn't scare me as much about having sex; I probably wouldn't have ended up as a pregnant teen. Approximately one million teenagers every year become pregnant; up to 95 % of these pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted.
There are so many reasons as to why teenage pregnancy is a problem and not just because the mothers are so young. Teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely than their peers who delay childbearing to live in poverty and rely on welfare. The second reason is because the children of these teenage mothers are often born at low birth weights, experience health and developmental problems, and are frequently poor, abused, and/or neglected. The third reason is because "teenage pregnancy poses a substantial burden to society, estimated at $7 billion annually in lost tax revenues, public assistance, child health care, foster care, and involvement with the criminal justice system. (peacock, 96). With all of these problems the united states needs a number of initiatives to reduce its teenage pregnancy rate and the negative outcomes that accompany it. These initiatives should incorporate accurate sexuality education and information in the schools and in the media, improvements in funding for and access to family planning services, and youth development programs to improve the life options of impoverished teens.
The number one way to prevent teenage pregnancy all starts off with communication between teenagers and their parents. This was my main problem as a teen. My mom disapproved of premarital sex, and told me she would put me in the morgue if I ever did have sex. She was telling me this after I had already lost my virginity. Do you honestly think that I was going to go to her about getting on birth control, I think not. As parents, you are going to think by talking about sex, it will be encouraging it but that is mistaken. Decisions related to intercourse evolve from an entire set of value systems and attitudes that have been acquired throughout a teenager's life. Research has indicated that full of contraceptive knowledge is just another block of information to be incorporated into a child's total value system and does not suddenly change his or her attitude on sex. When and if your child decides to have sexual intercourse, they will be more likely to use birth control if you discussed it with them." young people who talk about sex with their parents and expect positive reactions from them are more likely to use contraception than young people whose parents are negative about sex" says, Dr. Peter scales of the institution for family research and education. Teens are going to conceal and hide that they are having sex, like I did, if they are scared about their parents knowing about it. If a teen knows their parents will help them with their sexual problems, they are going to be more willing to come to their parents for help. If parents would talk to their children, then some pregnancies would be prevented, although they think it is the school’s job to teach their children because they don’t want to or don’t think they are as capable as schools are. Teens need to hear how their parents feel about sex.
Society should enforce statutory rape laws. Every state has its own statutory rape law, but most of them state that adults over eighteen can be sentenced to a prison sentence if they have sex with someone under the age of eighteen. “perhaps it is regarded as politically incorrect to try the male responsible for adolescent pregnancy for what is defined as a crime in state penal codes” (teenage pregnancy, 155). If society would look more harshly at the men that are causing these pregnancies than they do at the mothers, maybe it wouldn’t happen as often. As of now, most of the men committing these crimes are being let off very easily. Nothing happens to them and the girls get to take society’s wrath. In high schools there are also eighteen-year-old boys that take advantage of the younger girls. Sophomore girls would do just about anything to keep the attention of senior guys. Some of them would even go as far as to have sex with them. Therefore, statutory rape is still being committed just at a closer age difference. Parents need to watch whom their children date.
Society should show teenagers the effects of pregnancy. Baby-think-it over is a great way for teenagers to learn what life is like for a teenage mother. High school students have to carry around a child like doll and make they take care of its every need. They must get up with it when it cries in the middle of the night, and feed it no matter what they are doing. It gives the teenager a sense of what it is like to be a real teenage parent. It isn’t the same as the real thing, but it is as close as you can get without having an actual child. Teenagers could also talk to other teenagers about the effects abortion has on their life. Many teens think that if they get pregnant that there is always abortion and adoption to fix their mistake. This is true, but they don’t think about how it will affect themselves. “it is obvious that the abortion wrecked my life. Emotionally, I was a different person before and after it. It left a path of destruction in my life” (cothran, 122). With the exceptions of teenagers that have been pregnant the effects of pregnancy cannot be completely understood. If teenagers could understand the full effects of their actions, they would not put themselves in the position to have to make life-changing choices.

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