Teen Pregnancy

Introduction

Teenage pregnancy is that pregnancy that occurs in a woman who is too young to embrace motherhood. Teenage pregnancy occurs between early adolescence and puberty. The World Health organization (WHO) sets the teens between 10 and 19 years. Most teenage pregnancies are considered unwanted pregnancies, caused by the practice of sex without contraception (Adams, 36). In general, the term also refers to pregnant women who have not reached the legal age of maturity which varies for different countries. Teenage pregnancy also includes, a young woman who gets pregnant in a situation of dependency of the family of origin. Teen pregnancy can affect the life of a teenage girl(Raatikainen, 157).

Discussion

There are various implications of teenage pregnancy in terms of social context. Teenage pregnancy is an issue that is prevalent in United States of America more than any other industrialized country. There are about one million teenage girls getting pregnant each year. There are about four young women out of ten who get pregnant at least once before they turn 20. Federal government is spending about $40 billion to help families beginning with teenage birth. Today the rate of teenage pregnancy is declining, but in America still they are very high (Abalkhail, 609). The research has proved that, rate of teenage pregnancy has declined by 19% in America. America has the highest teen pregnancy rate than other countries. In fact, the birth rate of America is double of Canada's teenage birth rate, four times higher than of France and Germany's birth rate and eight times higher than of Japan. In 2009, a total of 409,840 infants were born to 15-19 year olds, for a live birth rate of 39.1 per 1,000 women.

Causes

Malfunction of the family (can be run from a home where the teen sometimes feels threatened by violence, alcoholism and the ...