Teen Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is an extremely big issue in the society of today. Every were you turn people are either talking about it or you see a girl that is pregnant. The education on safe sex is given but a lot time ignored or purposely forgotten by these teens. Theirs is no one for these girls to blame but them selves even do there mistakes cost every one.

The statistics for 1996 show that in Colorado 11,930 girls became pregnant within that year. In 1993 alone, 12,554 babies were born to adolescents who were 15 years age of age or younger. In general there is approximately about one million teenagers that become pregnant within the fifty states, that comes out to be that 10 percent of all girls between that age of 15 to 19 become pregnant. What is amazing is that the birth rate in the United states has declined steadily since the 1990's but the teen pregnancy rate has inevitably increased. In, addition the United states has the highest teen pregnancy rate in an industrialized country.

Many believe that the environment that these young parents are raised in is a huge factor with the rate of pregnancy. Some think that if you are raised in poverty, in a single parent home, or just all together are from a lower socioeconomic background that you are at higher risk to become pregnant. They also consider cigarette smoking and drug use another high risk for pregnancy. Some believe that these girls should not have the right to keep there child in fear that the cycle will keep repeating it self such as many refer to it as a virus or epidemic. Research suggest that children that are born to teenage mothers are in poorer health then if they were born to an older women. The research also states that these children are born prematurely and suffer low birth weight. Another factor that many choose to overlook is that these teen mothers can sometimes not afford the appropriate health care that is needed for a healthy pregnancy.

Most of the time the fathers of these children will either not have a part in the life of there child or be in out of there life. Teen fathers in most circumstances don't marry the girls that they have impregnated, which makes these young mother have less support. Many believe that the father of the child has a bigger risk for socioeconomic disadvantage is he chooses to take responsibility for his actions. The fathers of these children are most