Decreasing Teen Pregnancy

Decreasing Teen Pregnancy

Decreasing teen pregnancy has been a constant battle for the United States in the past few years. America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the western part of the world despite not being the leader in sexually active teenagers. The main problem is that here in the United States we do not educate our children enough on having safe sex. Our children end up learning on their own and eventually end up having a child from the lack of knowledge they have. They also take away from their own lives, because a child raising a child is a big task for anyone to take on.

The best way for teenagers to decrease the rate in pregnancy is to practice abstinence. It helps control the birth rates and stops the transmittal of STD's. Most teens have sex because of peer pressure and the fear of being left out. Abstinence is very important but the friends you child chooses is also important to the way they approach having sex. If everyone is doing it around them, they will eventually fall into the trap of peer pressure and begin having sex. Abstaining from sex and learning more about sex is a good way to increase awareness and prevent pregnancy. According to the Guttmacher Institute, "teen pregnancy has decreased by 28% since 1990 due to the education on pregnancy and the literature passed out in schools." Traditionally parents have taught their children about having sex, but now with families always on the go it is hard to focus attention in this area. Most parents rely on sex education in school to help increase a teenager's knowledge about sex and pregnancy. I think that this knowledge should start as soon as a child is able to adhere to all the information and understand how their bodies work. It

should be taught in stages so that by the time they are ready to have sex they will have enough information in their lives to make the right decision.

There are other ways to help prevent teen pregnancy. One is birth control; it can be taken in a pill form everyday or by an injection every 90 days. The only thing about this is that it is not 100% effective. There is still a chance a young female could be getting the injections and still become pregnant. In addition, if an injection is missed and her body starts producing eggs it doubles her chance of getting pregnant. The next option that is 100% fool proof is called surgical sterilization. This process will block the sperm duct in men and the fallopian tubes in women. As a teenager who would really want to go to this extreme being that young, or better yet what parent would put their child in that situation. The most common tool used to decrease teen pregnancy is the condom. It is easily available and anyone can buy them. The down side to these and is a cause of teen pregnancy is the improper use of the condom or the condom breaking during intercourse. This is one of the main causes of unplanned teen pregnancies. There are also many groups to help prevent teen pregnancies and decrease the rates. These groups can start within our children's schools or be provided to them by a local, state, or federal organization. These organizations will provide a young teenager with skills on how to avoid peer pressure and make them aware that sex should be put off until marriage or at least until they can afford to have a child.

Teenage pregnancy has been