Kids Having Kids:
Preventing Teens from Experiencing the Adverse Effects of Teenage Pregnancy
For years the media has been portraying the life of teenagers in the form of movies and tv shows inaccurately. The real issues teens deal with are blurred and are instead replaced with either overdramatized problems that a large percentage of teens never have to deal with or the issues are dumbed down to appeal to a larger audience. Teen pregnancy is a hot topic issue that the majority, if not all teens, will experience in one way or another; whether it be a friend, a significant other, or the teen themselves. What is not shown are the teen mothers who are struggling to grasp the poverty line. The immense amounts of stress that continues to be packed on these mothers to the point where their mental health is at risk, is not seen. The girls who drop out of school because they have to care for their child and struggle to get a job because of their limited education are not shown. With the media not showing adolescents the true risks of teenage pregnancy, school systems should be held responsible for correctly informing the youth about it. Schools are failing students by enforcing an “abstinence is the best contraceptive” curriculum. No one can stop kids from having sex so in order to truly see progress and a significant decrease in teen pregnancy rates, The federal government must pass legislation that forces all schools to teach comprehensive sex education and completely lose the abstinence only curriculum.
Teenage Pregnancy is not an issue that only affects a couple hundred people a year. It is a serious public health issue that knows no discrimination and affects people from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that “In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group” (CDC Staff). In 2015, The states were ranked 1-50 by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy based off of each state's teen birth rate. The state that had the lowest birth rate was Massachusetts at “9.3 births per 1,000 girls” (NCPTU Staff ) and the state with the highest birthrate is Arkansas at “38 births per 1,000 girls” (NCPTU Staff). A look at the happiest states in 2016 will show that Massachusetts ranks at 15 in “overall emotional and physical well-being” while Arkansas ranked 49. This alone isn’t enough to say with one hundred percent certainty that states with lower teen birth rates are inherently happier as opposed to their counterparts, but there is reason to believe that there is some sort of correlation between the two. The stresses a teen mother faces can make them immensely unhappy.
The teenage girls are not the only people who struggle in a situation like teen pregnancy. In a lot of cases, the father of the child is overlooked, but there is no doubt that the fathers of these children also have an immense amount of responsibility ahead of them, although the majority of them choose to not take take responsibility. “Only 20% of teen fathers marry the baby’s mother…it’s common for the relationship to end and when it does, many teen fathers don’t have much interaction with their children.”(ModernMom Staff). For the fathers that do choose to take responsibility, they have a hefty task ahead of them. Depending on the father's age opposed to the mother’s, the father can face criminal charges. “Teen Shelter organization finds that teen fathers are nearly always older than the mother. It may be only by a few months, but often teen fathers are older by a year or more. In fact, in many cases, teen fathers could be charged with statutory rape due to the age difference.” (ModernMom Staff) If a father is imprisoned for this, the life of the child would be changed drastically and the mother would be put under even more financial stress because she would then either have to rely solely on herself or on her parents.
In 2010 an analysis of thirty states in the United States show that as birth rates went down, millions of dollars in taxpayer money all over the country were being saved. All states experienced some kind of decline in teen birth rates since 1990 but the states that had the most dramatic declines also had the most savings in their taxpayer money. Figure 1 below shows this. When the birth rates begin to go down not only are teenagers getting an advantage but so is the whole country and everyone who pays taxes. With less money going towards assisting teen mothers during childbirth that money can go towards other things such as education, public health, transportation, and practically anything else that the state would need to better the lives of everyone in it.
Figure 2 indicates that the majority of teenage mothers are ethnic minorities. One has to wonder why there is such a large divide. Children who are in “less favorable socioeconomic conditions, such as low education and low income levels of a teen’s family” (CDC Staff) are put at a much higher risk. People of color are generally the people that are in these situations, which would explain why the birth rate of Hispanic teens is over two times that of Non-Hispanic White teens and Non-Hispanic Black teens birth rates are almost double that of Non-Hispanic White teens.”The profile of those at greatest risk of teenage pregnancy (<20) was that of an early maturing girl with conduct problems who had been reared in a family environment characterized by parental instability, and maternal role models of young single motherhood.” (Woodward). There are thousands upon thousands of young women of color who live in bad neighborhoods with single moms who are struggling to stay above the poverty line, and chances are that the mothers of these teens were in the exact same situation that their own children are in now. This is a cycle that has been going for decades and unless schools begin to educate the youth about how to keep themselves safe, this cycle of poverty, limited education, and teen pregnancy will continue.
In 2008 “Twenty-five states…rejected federal funding for abstinence-only programs, based on evaluations that suggest that they don't have an impact on behavior.” (Advocates for Youth Staff). In 2008-2010 the teenage pregnancy rates for each state in America had dropped. There is a correlation between these two events. With more and more states accepting and embracing the comprehensive sex education curriculum the more the teen pregnancy rates seemed to drop.
The other side of the spectrum shows that states that teach almost solely abstinence only also seem to have the highest pregnancy rates. A study was conducted by Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall and David W.Hall and the conclusion they had come to was “increasing emphasis on abstinence education is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates”(Stanger-Hall). They came to this conclusion by looking at the most recent national data, which was in 2005, that contained information on the laws that concerned sex education and or policies. States were categorized into four groups based on how sex education was taught in that specific state: group 0 did not mention abstinence in their curriculum, group 1 covered abstinence “in the context of comprehensive sex education” (Stanger-Hall), group 2 were states that had a strong emphasis in abstinence in their curriculum , and group 3 consisted of states that had abstinence only sex education. Group 3 had the most states with nearly half of the country at 21 states. In 2005 there were only 11 states in group 1 that taught comprehensive sex education. “Level 0 states had an average (± standard error) teen pregnancy rate of 58.78 (±4.96), level 1 states averaged 56.36 (±3.94), level 2 states averaged 61.86 (±3.93), and level 3 states averaged 73.24 (±2.58) teen pregnancies per 1000 girls aged 14–19”(Stanger-Hall). These rates of pregnancy in these states are indicative of what is working and what does not work.
The responsibility of raising a child is really felt on these teens and a large majority of them make supporting their baby their top priority and put the rest of their life on hold. This is clearly seen with the amount of teenage girls that are dropping out because of either pregnancy or parenthood. “Thirty percent of all teenage girls of all girls who drop out of school cite pregnancy and parenthood as key reasons”(NCSL Staff). " Both teen mothers and fathers are much less likely to graduate high school than their non-parent counterparts.” (ModernMom Staff) These teenagers dropping out of school and not getting their high school diplomas, makes the job options very limited. In today's society the value of a high school diploma is very little and even bachelor’s degrees are losing value in the workplace. “ By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school” (Carnevale). That cuts over half of the jobs in the United states as options. Without decent jobs, the quality of life for the entire family will be very poor.
In conclusion, in order to prevent and slow the progress of teenage pregnancy the federal government must force schools to teach comprehensive sex education and lose the abstinence only curriculum. Statistically, everyone benefits from a decrease in teen pregnancy ratings. People will be happier, states will save money, teens won’t have to drop out of high school to support a child, and teenagers won’t have to take an adult's responsibility and they can continue to follow the path that they set for themselves.
Works Cited
Staff, NCSL. “TEEN PREGNANCY AFFECTS GRADUATION RATES.” NSCL, NCSL, 17 June 2013. Accessed 24 May 2017.
Carnevale, Anthony P, et al. Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020. Georgetown Public Policy Institute, 2013, Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020, cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Recovery2020.FR_.Web_.pdf. Accessed 22 May 2017.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. (2014). Counting It Up: Total Costs to Taxpayers. Washington, DC: Author.
Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F., and David W. Hall. “Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S.” Ed. Virginia J. Vitzthum. PLoS ONE 6.10 (2011): e24658. PMC. Web. 18 May 2017.
Staff, ModernMom. “Teen Dad Pregnancy Facts.” ModernMom, Mom Inc., 11 Oct. 2016. Accessed 26 May 2017.
Staff, Advocates For Youth. “History of Sex Ed.” Advocatesforyouth.org, Advocates for Youth. Accessed 26 May 2017.