Teen Pregnancy and Abortion

Teenage Abortion

Teen pregnancy in today's society has become a huge issue in this era. Most of these teenager's are still in high school and have no way of having anyone to help them. Most are eventually going to be single parents raising a child or aborting the child. "In 1999...over 148,000 teenage pregnancies ended in abortion" (advocatesforyouth.org). This leads teenage mother's to parent their child in single-parent homes or have illegal abortions. Even though some of these teens have no knowledge on the effects on abortions they find it to be the easiest way to make the situation better. However, aborting a child may not always be the best answer to solving a problem, but it should be a decision they are able to make on their own.

There have been plenty of teenage abortions and it is usual for a woman to have had an abortion. "About one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45" (guttmacher.org). It is likely for any woman to have an abortion, even those that thought they would never do it. "50% of women having abortions are in their 20"s; 61% have one or more children; 67% have never married; 57% are economically disadvantaged; 88% live in a metropolitan area and 78% report a religious affiliation" (guttmacher.org). Having an abortion seems to be common in America. So regardless of what is said there are still those few who will continue to do illegal abortions. "The teenage abortion ratio is 375 abortions per 1,000 births to women ages 15 to 19. The teenage abortion rate is 18 per 1,000 women ages 15-19" (advocatesforyouth.org).

"One out of every 20 girls becomes pregnant the first time she has sex" (Cavendish, 12). Most of these teens are young and are afraid to tell their parents. "Of teenage women who become pregnant, about 35% choose to have abortions rather than bear a child" (prochioice.org). They have a number of reasons for wanting a baby. Some come from families where they've received little affection and attention. "Rather than tell their parents-for whatever reason-some teenagers resort to unsafe abortions or try to perform the abortion themselves. In doing so, they risk serious injuries, death or in some cases, criminal charges" (prochoice.com).

Most teens will take the chance of going through the complications of illegal abortions because they are afraid how others might perceive them or how their parent's reactions might be. "In general, teens form families that are better of financially and who have higher expectations for the future have been more likely to choose to end a pregnancy with abortion than teens from poor homes or who have low hopes for the future" (advocatesforyouth.org). Some teens find it harder to tell their parents because their parents might not react as well as they should. This leaves the child to make a quick decision to abort the child. "61% of minors who have abortions do so with at least one parent's knowledge; 45% of parents are told by their daughter. The great majority of parents support their daughter's decisions to have an abortion" (stuwww.tcu.edu).

Sometimes making the decisions about having a child may be harder than it seem. Most teens are in a relationship and think that they're ready. However, some are pressured by their spouse to have the child and not abort it. "the reasons most often given by teens for choosing to have an abortion are being concerned about how having a baby would change their lives, feeling that are not mature enough to have a child and having financial problems" (stuwww.tcu.edu). Most teens don't want their friends to make fun of them because they are having a child.

More and more teens find ways of receiving abortions just so they will not have to deal with a child. Although handling a child at a young age is a huge responsibility, it is one of the consequences for having unprotected sex. Most of the teenagers refuse to take birth control because they think everyone will make fun of them. Others that use the contraceptives may use them incorrectly. "78% of teen pregnancies are unplanned, accounting for about ј of all accidental pregnancies annually" (stuwww.tcu.edu). These are the teens that tend to have more than one sex partner and are likely to have more than one child while being a teenager. Not only do they conceive more than one child, but can possibly have had an abortion and their parents were unable to notice. "Abortion at eight weeks or less gestation has a fatality rate of 0.4 per 100,000 abortions" (advocatesforyouth.org).

What these teens fail to realize is that being able to have a child is a blessing. There are some people that are not able to have children and wish they could. Although having a child at a young age is one of the hardest challenges a teenager could face, that all comes