Those of us who are adults here, and probably most of the young people, know that teen pregnancy is a huge probem in our society. That part is not even debatable. Most of us also have strong opinions about it, one way or another.
We have better birth control now than ever before. We have greater dissemination of information than ever before (although it really could and should be better). Many of our schools have some degree of sex education (and many of these programs are seriously lacking). Parents and even peers are providing some degree of sex education. And yet our teenagers are making babies at an alarmingly high rate. What is going on?
Of the teenage girls who get pregnant right now, half will have abortions. Of those who don’t, about 15% will have miscarriages. The rest will have their babies, and about 98% will choose to keep and raise their children. These girls are much less likely to finish high school if they are under 17 when they get pregnant. Never mind college or specialized training for many of them. Most will discover that the baby’s father will not stick around. Some grandparents pick up the load (which I understand but doubt I would ever do), sometimes even adopting the baby and raising it as their own. Adoption of these babies is almost unheard of in this day and age. Many will be raised by parents who have minimum wage jobs, lots of stress, often little support. Child abuse is higher when moms are very young. She also has a higher risk of a second (or third) unexpected pregnancy and a diminished chance of finding a healthy partner for herself. A large percentage go on welfare because they have few other options. Those who opt to marry the baby’s father don’t fare much better, often going into parenthood and marriage without the maturity for either. Divorce among teen parents is excessively high. This is stuff we all hear or know from our reading and often personal experience.
We know this stuff… but what do we DO about it as a society? Most of those things we have tried already don’t seem to be working. Some “life planning” classes (or whatever they are called in H.S.) provide teens with the responsibilities of parenthood without a baby actually being there…they use sacks of flour or “robo-babies” as mock infants. These seem to have some impact on kids, but these classes also seem to be few and far in between. Some parents strongly oppose these classes… God only knows why!!! One guy I used to date thought the answer to teen pregnancy was to automatically give the father custody! Interesting thought, but would it have the desired effect?
I would love to hear some creative ideas on this problem.
Make Birth Control pills over the counter instead of by prescription. BC pills are something like 99.9% effective, and when used together with condoms (98% theoretical efficiency) would take care of most of this issue.
I’m quite certain that most teen pregnancies result from unprotected sex. Most of the problem is probably due to youthful recklessness rather than lack of contraception. I don’t have a cite for that though.
I don’t think it’s even debatable that most pregnancies for ANYONE result from sex without contraception. And there are over-the-counter contraceptives that have been available for years to teens, and few use them. Most teens (and a lot of adults) are embarrassed to go into a store and publically purchase contraception. In addition, the majority of teenagers labor under a delusion called the “invincibility fable” which allows them to believe that bad things happen only to other people. So teens drive too fast, take drugs and have unprotected sex…often believing they are too smart or too special for natural consequences to happen to them. How do we convince them that nature has their number as well?
“The birth rate for U.S. teenagers declined steadily throughout the 1990s, falling from 62.1 births per 1,000 teenagers 15–19 years in 1991 to 48.5 in 2000, a reduction of 22 percent”
It’s also interesting to note that that number was as high as 90 births per 1000 teenage girls in the 1950s. Of course, back then most of the teen mothers were married. Not so today.
According to this study, that number is closer to 25% and is on the decline.
Upon what do you base the assertion that these programs are “few and far between.” I went to a public high school that made us carry around sacks of flour. It was a required part of a required Health class.
We didn’t do the flour thing in health class, but the elective Child Care and development did the doll baby thing, which was sort of sad since many of the girls in the class had real babies. Rock Island had its own day care center for the students’ kids. Girls i knew in Jr. High got pregnant (i believe they averaged 4 a year)
For one thing, lose the stupid notion of “abstinence only” sex education.
Guess what–some kids are going to have sex no matter what adults tell them. The message needs to be this: “Having sex is a big decision, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly–but if you absolutely want to have sex, then you need to use protection. And these are the ways to protect yourself, and how to use them.”
I agree with Elwood. Adults need to understand that teens will have sex, even under the age of 18. By pretending that sex is not an issue, until the age of consent, they deny the girls a chance of good contraception.
I don’t know how it is in the US; but here, girls can get the pill from the school nurse, without letting the parents know, from about age 14.
1 question. I was under the impression that the pill required tests in order to prescribe the correct amount of estrogen. It would seem to me that a 1-size-fit all pill would beat the ovaries into a no-estrogen production submission via homeostatic negative feedback loops. Isn’t that bad for ovaries(/any gland that produces stuff)?
and…
I agree with elwood.
Maybe Federal aid until they at least graduate from High School? Daycare, food stamps, etc. that’d at least give them a fighting chance.
All the onus is always on the girls to protect themselves, perhaps understandably. All the sex-ed and pregnancy ed I have heard of in schools is about bringing former teen mothers in, etc etc.
What about bringing in young MEN who for eighteen years of their young lives are going to have to pay child support for a child they never wanted or planned for, but were too irresponsible to avoid having?
Bringing in a young man who couldn’t go out with his friends at college so much because he had to pay child support, or couldn’t save from his first job to get a house because he had to pay for a child instead, might make young men more likely to wear condoms. Because with DNA testing, they can’t avoid or escape the financial responsibilities of fatherhood anymore. They need to protect themselves from this as much as young women do.
I also think that birth control pills and condoms should be available on the state for ALL financially disadvantaged women - whether unemployed, at school, at college, whatever. Financially disadvantaged men should also be able to get free condoms.
in the UK ALL women recieve the contraceptive pill free of charge, which is nifty.
personally i think a lot of the time the girls WANT to have babies. not consciously perhaps, but it’s certainly there. the theory being, that at least they’ll have one person in the world who needs them and will love them unconditionally.
for many girls from lower socio-economic groups, they see that the rest of their lives will be lived in poverty, working minimum wage jobs anyway. and they may as well start the inevitable earlier rather than later, as at least they’ll get their own home, and a degree of independence.
which is why most of the poorer girls choose to keep the baby, while middle class girls have more frequent abortions.
so, to prevent teenage pregnancy you have to give the girls higher self-esteem, a chance at a better lifestyle, and a way out of poverty.
Question: why is it our (people who aren’t teen parents) responsibility to deal with this problem? Unless the pregnancies are a result of rape or incest (which is a whole different metal cooking thingy of swimmy thingies), why is our responsibility to say more than, “Having children can bugger up your life, especially now.”?
I agree that teen pregnancy is a problem. I just don’t see why it’s our problem.
well, not having sex with teenage girls would be a great start.
seeing as that isn’t going to happen, perhaps we should work on getting rid of the stigmata of sex.
My solution?
Lets rent hookers for our sons.If we arrange better, controlled access to sex for our kids they’ll be less inclined to try it themselves and take risks.
istara, I totally agree with your comments about young men. But having been a young man myself, once, I say they’re not trustworthy. A young girl having sex should not trust the guy to avoid pregnancy. She should be on the pill and the guy should use a condom. Pill takes care of unwanted pregnancy and condom of STD + teaches the guy that if he wants to get it on, he should take part of the responsability.
Back to first premises: I don’t know that teen pregnancy is a huge problem in our society at all, and I think it is sure as hell debateable. If it ever was a “problem,” as neutron star has demonstrate with his stats, it is considerably less of a problem now than it was just 11 years ago.
Further, I question whether it is “huge” in two other ways: (1) in comparison with other societal ills plaguing our society, and (2) in comparison of the social costs caused by teen pregnancy against the resources people wish to expend combating it. Is combating teen pregnancy cost effective.
Gaspode - as a young man, had you been confronted with slightly older young men who were financially crippled through paying child support, would it have made any difference to you wearing a condom?
Maybe not? I genuinely don’t know, I cannot tell how a young man’s mind would work. But you are probably right, probably both genders would be too apathetic and trust luck too much.
Gaijin, for that statement to be a generalization, sweeping or not, The Gaspode would have needed to add the word “all” before “teens.”
As it is, all it takes for The Gaspode’s statement to be accurate is that two teens have sex under the age of 18 (he did use the plural, so he needs two).
I remember being pretty pissed off a few years ago when everybody was trying to scare me away from having sex by giving me horror stories of STDs and pregnancy, but not bothering to tell us about the various forms of birth-control. Obviously I knew about condoms, but I didn’t know how to use them! I mean, a little instruction on how to put them on would have been nice, so at least one of us woud have known. I had no idea how birth-control pills work, and as far as I knew at the time, those were the only two options.
I was going to have sex either way, and the people who were responsible for teaching me how to be responsible (parents, sex-ed teachers) acted like I wasn’t a ticking hormone bomb with a steady boyfriend. I eventually figured it all out, but honestly, I was smarter than most of my classmates. They didn’t figure it out.
So maybe adults should be less oblivious to the world. Do some teenagers choose to abstain? Undoubtedly. Do all teenagers? No. Should all teenagers choose to abstain from sex and remain virgins? I would say absolutely not. There’s nothing inherently wrong with sex if people are responsible. And the “sex talk” parents give their children should incorporate all of the necessary knowledge.
