How to prevent pregnancy

Pregnancy can be a scary thing, especially when unintended. Throughout history, thousands of parents have been shocked from their daughters coming home pregnant one day. Teen pregnancy is a life-changing situation and the lives of many teenage women have been ruptured by teen pregnancy. As a result of their pregnancies, their lives are put on hold all because of another responsibility interrupting their own lives. When so many young females are giving birth due to an accidental pregnancy, the country surely has to take notice and intervene somehow. While in the past few years, teen pregnancy has indeed declined, it is still a big problem in our society today (Henshaw). “The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of any Western nation, with approximately 820,000 girls under the age of 20 giving birth each year (Adolescent Pregnancy).” In saying that, what must be done to prevent such cases?
There are many methods in which pregnancy can be prevented, and the best one by far is most certainly abstinence (Darroch). Abstinence prevents teen pregnancies as well as all others with a one-hundred percent success rate (Teen Pregnancy Prevention). Abstinence is the practice of one avoiding sexual intercourse until he/she is betrothed. In modern days, it is called “saving oneself”. Abstinence is something that is easily taught but not so easily maintained. While many parents can never fathom their teenage daughters/sons partaking in sexual activities, it does indeed occur all around the nation. It is widely believed that these teens who exhibit this type of behavior don’t usually have open relationships with their parents or guardians (Preventing Teenage Pregnancy). If parents make themselves more available to their children, then that could easily make a big difference.
Abstinence is usually talked about in groups, and while many believe that this helps the situation, it actually worsens it sometimes (Sprague). These groups can be formed from religious groups, family, friends, etc. The problem with this though, is that while talking about sex, many times it makes teens want to have sex and this is due to the raging hormones that exist within most teenagers. Also, there are many teens who live to rebel against others and they could even end up encouraging the others within the group that sex isn’t that bad. So overall, these “abstinence talks” could sometimes be the cause of a teenage pregnancy. It’s like they say, curiosity killed the cat, and it can also cause a teenage pregnancy.
Aside from promoting abstinence, there are others who decide to avoid the inevitable and instead take another approach to ensure that their kid is well protected (Preventing Teen Pregnancy). This is done by promoting the usage of protection instead of reading the riot act and lecturing about abstinence (Darroch. Protection is the practice of using some sort of birth control method in order to prevent pregnancy. The most common use of protection is the condom which prevents pregnancy as well as STDs (Preventing Teen Pregnancy). Some parents and people believe that this is a foolish approach to take because they think that it gives teens the green light to go out and have sex. That’s not entirely true though, because this approach can be very useful indeed. There exists many teens who want to have sex despite being told to wait, and a handful of the teens in our nation will undoubtedly go out and do it anyway given the chance. Parents who know their children well and believe that their child is participating in or thinking about sexual activity are the parents who encourage their children to use protection. This act could go one of two ways though. The first and preferred is that the parent tells the child that they would really like for him/her to wait to have sex, but if he/she is found in a situation where they do decide to have sex anyway then they must at least use protection. This tells the teen that their parent really cares for them and just doesn’t want to see their life messed up by a foolish act and that could really discourage the teen from any thoughts of sex or at least encourage them to be safe if they do. The other act though is the one that should be avoided at all costs. If a parent simply tells their child to use protection, then they are indeed giving them the green light to have sex and the child will usually interpret it that way whether it was meant in that way or not. With carefully chosen words, teen pregnancy could be greatly reduced.
So overall, teen pregnancy is something that has been reducing over the years and it can easily continue to decrease so long as the right things are done. There are many government organizations that promote and help the prevention of teen pregnancy and millions of dollars have been used within these organizations. Aside from the ton of programs available though, the parents must also do their jobs and raise their children well and teach them about sex so that their teenage kids will be able to go to them if they have any questions. Parents are responsible for monitoring their kids’ activities and if there is belief that the kid is partaking in sexual activities then they should talk to their kid (Teen Pregnancy Prevention). First and foremost, abstinence should always be the first option, but if it seems that going that route is in doubt, only then should the parent promote the usage of protection of some sort if they just so happen to partake in having sex (Preventing Teen Pregnancy). This must be told to both sons and daughters, because teenage males cannot always be held accountable and sometimes are foolish enough to try to have unprotected sex, thus causing pregnancy. Ultimately, it is up to the teenager to make the right decision, but caring parents can greatly influence their children’s lives and the right action or simply a good talk can certainly make the difference and greatly prevent teenage pregnancy