tyeen pregnancy scourge of america

Dakotah Kelly
English 101
6/3/2014
Dr James Neiworth Teen Pregnancy Scourage of America Teen pregnacy is one of the most controversial subjects in America, research shows how unhealthy it is for a family’s when there is teen pregnant in the household. Teenage pregnancy has risen and fallen and looked at from many angles as “just” in todays society, thanks to shows such as “16 and pregnant” and ”teen mom” which doesn’t show how hard life would be for most young teenage parents, what hardships they will face. Teen pregnancy is scary no one should have to do it, it’s not a disease it can be avoided, so why is it such a big issue, why haven’t the birth rates aboung teens dropped nearer to zero. The point of this essay is to explain how and why teenage pregnancy is a problem that needs to be dealt with and how it affects life for the mother, father and child. This graph however points out the fact that numbers have dropped but have they dropped enough? The answer is no teen pregnancy is a large issue not every basis of stand can be accounted for using what is avalible it is not possible to keep track of daily statistics. Often times it appears numbers are dropping, althought at a local alternative high school there is an alternative high school that has parent to non-parent ratio roughly of 1 to 1. Which lead to belief that the number of teen parents has not dropped nearly enough to provide a solid ground to say its no longer a problem. How does being a teen parent affect the child? Developmentally, children with teen parents don’t advance as fast as those who have average aged parents (22-28), this affects their eductation and in some cases lead teen mothers to abuse or neglect their child, because of the constant care children need and may have become confused with their role as mother. ,”The children often grow up with emotional and educational problems as well. Because teen parents are often too immature to know how to care for their children and may be easily frustrated by infant behavior, their children may become victims of neglect or abuse.”(howstuffworks, Contributors). Young women who are pregnant don’t always seek the medical attention they need to keep their child and theiur selves healthy which can lead to coplications not just for the child but the mother as well.” Teenage girls who are pregnant especially if they don't have support from their parents are at risk of not getting adequate prenatal care. Prenatal care is critical, especially in the first months of pregnancy. Prenatal care screens for medical problems in both mother and baby, monitors the baby's growth, and deals quickly with any complications that arise. Prenatal vitamins with folic acid -- ideally taken before getting pregnant -- are essential in helping to help prevent certain birth defects, such as neural tube defects” (WebMd). Teenage pregnancies are heavily plagued by low birth weights and an increased number of heart, lung an d breathing issues. (Jean Carter, ARNP Family Practice). These affects can be the cause of malnutrition of the mother, the child pulls all of the nutrients from the mother and a specific diet is prescribed for mothers to be. Teen mothers often want to care for their children but don’t know how and this is why the number of teen pregancys need to drop. Teen mothers are affected as well; most teenage mothers are between ages 15-19 and are low income or are well below the poverty level. Teen mothers are also usually have issues finishing high school and more often than not never attend college, which means teenage mothers have a very low level of education and more often than not have a single marital status. “Teenage pregnancies have become a public health issue because of their observed negative effects on perinatal outcomes and long-term morbidity. The association of young maternal age and long-term morbidity is usually confounded, however, by the high prevalence of poverty, low level of education, and single marital status among teenage mothers”. (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,2014). Many teens don’t think about how pregnancy at a young age could affect their lives. According to the StayTeen.org website, 3 in 10 teenage girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once before turning 20. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention share that teen birth rates are nine times higher in the U.S. than in other developed countries. Furthermore, of the nation’s teen moms, 25 percent are likely to have a second child within two years of the first birth. (StayTeen.org,2013). Teen girls who are pregnant experience many of the same physical symptoms as pregnant adult women, like nausea, fatigue and cravings. WebMD, however, explains that pregnant teens experience “unique medical risks” because their bodies are still developing. Teens who are pregnant generally experience a lack in prenatal care, especially if there is little support from their parents. This can result in a birth defects, premature birth or low birth weights. Pregnant teens are also more at risk than adults for developing pregnancy-induced hypertension, or high blood pressure, which can lead to preeclampsia. Emotionally as a teen matures, the surge of hormones and the natural development of her brain can make her feel emotional. The hormones that affect a teen when she is pregnant may heighten her emotions. Teen moms are at a higher risk for postpartum depression than adults who give birth. If left untreated, postpartum depression in a teen can affect her development and her infant’s quality of care. When a teen becomes pregnant, she may miss school so she can keep prenatal care appointments or if her physician orders bed rest. The young person may also miss additional days of school if she gives birth during the school year. The dropout rate among teen mothers in the U.S. is high, and this population represents a large percentage of the total high school dropouts, according to the CDC. Only about half of teen mothers earn a high school diploma by the time they turn 22, and earning a diploma may be more difficult for teen moms who have a second child. All of this affects the mothers’ way of life, and changes the mother’s life forever; the father might be a little better off….. Teen fathers don’t get special treatment they are treated differently than the mother. Most teen fathers feel they have to drop out of school and work to support their families. We saw a lot of this of 16 AP and TM. Both of the shows do not show much of the fathers being in school. It’s funny that when teenage girls get pregnant the first thing parents say is that "YOU’RE going to finish school and then get a job to take care of that baby. Parents don’t say “YOU and TESSA” are going to finish school. The first thing teen fathers hear after revealing they got a girl pregnant, is that “YOU WILL GET A JOB AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR DAUGHTER”. Teen fathers also have issues with sticking around for their children. Teenage pregnancy almost inevitably seems to lead to sole motherhood, and society tends to blame the young men themselves: after having caused a pregnancy they flee from the responsibility. there seems to be a significant number of young men quite willing to be involved in the lives of their babies, but little appropriate help for them to achieve this goal. Teen fathers earn less over time than men who have children at an older age. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Over time, teen fathers earn 10 to 15 percent less annually than male teens who wait to have children. Teen fathers are more likely to get involved with criminal behavior, including alcohol and drug abuse, and drug dealing. Depending on their age, teen fathers can also face charges of statutory rape. Besides earning less than men who wait to father children, teen fathers are required to pay child support until the child is 18. Despite this requirement, only one in five teen mothers receives child support. (Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing in California, 2012). “One out of every fifteen American males will father a child while in his teens, as stated by the Family Education website. That means one out of fifteen males is even more likely to drop out of high school, be unprepared to enter the work force, and be unable to complete higher education” (Annie Mueller,2013). This affects the father in many ways he has to pay child support or support both the mother and the child and at 16 to 19 that can be very hard. All of these reasons are a huge part of how life is affected by having a child at a young age it can also affect the community.

Teen parents affect the community and family we pay taxes which often goes towards care of these young parents. The cost of a teenager having a pregnancy is double that of an adult because they need a lot more care which comes out of the tax payer’s pocket. Pregnancy at a young age is considered as a high risk pregnancy which means they are more likely to have medical complications as they have not finished growing. Which in turn means our tax money goes to that more than things we need. The negative economic effect that teen pregnancy has on young mothers also impacts the nation’s economy as a whole, according to a report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Thirty four percent of young teen mothers earn neither a college degree nor a high school diploma, and less than two percent of teen mothers earn a degree by the time they turn 30. Because teenage pregnancy deters increased education.” Nearly one-third of teen girls who have dropped out of high school early pregnancy or parenthood as a key reason. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, it is estimated that over the course of his or her lifetime, a single high school dropout costs the nation approximately $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes, and productivity. Put another way, if students who dropped out of the Class of 2011 had graduated from high school, the nation’s economy would likely benefit from nearly $154 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes.
The country’s lost earnings from an increased number of high school and college drop-outs are compounded by the estimated billions of dollars that teenage pregnancies cost taxpayers each year, mainly due to increased public sector health care costs. Despite the good news that the U.S.’s nationwide teen pregnancy rate is dropping, the rates of teenage motherhood remain in states that promote abstinence-only policies. Ultimately, providing young women with insufficient and misleading information about their reproductive health has a dramatically negative economic impact on the nation’s teenage mothers and on the nation as a whole”. (TARA CULP-RESSLER, 2012) teen pregnancy affects all parts of life social economical, and political that’s why the us needs to fund more ways to combat teen pregnancy, and also make better use of programs.

Other moral issues are brought up by teen pregnancy, and its effects on society as a whole. Rates of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion have declined dramatically in the United States since their peak in the early 1990s. In 2010, some 614,000 pregnancies occurred among teenage women aged 15–19, for a rate of 57.4 pregnancies per 1,000 women that age. This marks a 51% decline from the 1990 peak, and a 15% decline in just two years, from 67.8 in 2008, according to “U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2010: National and State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity,” a new study by the Guttmacher Institute. Similarly, the teen birthrate declined 44% from the peak in 1991 (from 61.8 births per 1,000 to 34.4 per 1,000); and the teen abortion rate declined 66% between its 1988 peak and 2010 (from 43.5 abortions per 1,000 to 14.7 per 1,000). OF the 1.1 million American teen-age girls who get pregnant each year, less than 2 percent put their babies up for adoption.” The study also found dramatic declines in teen pregnancy rates among all racial and ethnic groups. The teen pregnancy rate declined 56% among both non-Hispanic white teens (from 86.6 per 1,000 to 37.8) and among black teens (from 223.8 per 1,000 to 99.5) between 1990 and 2010, and by 51% among Hispanic teens (from 169.7 per 1,000 to 83.5) between 1992 (the peak for this group) and 2010. However, wide disparities persist, and rates among both black and Hispanic teens remain twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic white teens” (CDC, 1992-2010). About half of the teens have abortions. Most of the rest - 58 percent single parents - struggle to raise their babies while trying to finish school and hold down jobs. Abortion and adoption are both very big parts of teen pregnancy the choices have to be made. The choices these young women have are not very satisfying and the amount of pain it takes to make a decision would be a plate full. Teen parents often times break up or split up after a rather short marriage which leads some to believe that maybe its not a good thing for people to have children at a young age. Having a child at a young age is not a good start in life for one to thrive; a person needs to go to school and get a career so said person can take care of their child or family. Teens need to be smart about what they do, it’s not healthy to be 16 years old and have to worry about more than yourself this causes stress, stress causes health issues such as depression. All of this can be prevent both birth control and education can severely decrees the amount of pregnancy between the ages of 15 to 19. Sex and contraceptive education may be the most effective way to reduce teen pregnancy. However, teenagers generally are uninformed about the availability, efficiency, and choices of contraceptives available. Only 69% of school districts in the United States teach sex education. Most of these (86%) promote abstinence (i.e., not having sex) instead of teaching teenagers how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent pregnancy if they are going to have sex. Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections. Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors. No abstinence-only-until-marriage program has been shown to help teens delay the initiation of sex or to protect themselves. Although the U.S. government ignores it, adolescents have a fundamental human right to accurate and comprehensive sexual health information. This leads us to conclude that there are ways for teens to learn about sex education and the tide can shift forcing the number of teens that become pregnant to drop dramatically. Having explained in detail the underlying, and upsetting challenges of being a teen parent one can see why this is such a controversial issue. Teens need to be educated, teen pregnancy needs to stop this can all be stopped. There is a hope for a future where teens no longer have to worry about pregnancy. They have been taught about contraceptives and just as important had proper sex education. With an advance like this, the economy would not be stricken by teen parents; there would be no need for expensive programs like Planned Parenthood. The long period of teen pregnancy could all be stopped if the funding could be applied where it was needed.

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Copyright © 2014 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/154/3/212.full http://thinkprogress.org/person/tculp-ressler/ TARA CULP-RESSLER