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. 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. 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.

Thesis Statement

Spreading awareness, educating the youth, and parental involvement are crucial in decreasing the rate of teen pregnancy.

Discussion

Teenage pregnancy has become a worldwide social as well as an educational concern for the countries that not just developing and under developing but for the developed countries too. There are many countries that experience high incidence of teenage pregnancy although they have implemented mitigation strategies. Studies have revealed that 530,000 teenagers in the US became pregnant in 1990, and 51% of these teenagers even gave birth to their babies (Ojeda, pp. 45). Literature also reveals that the rates of fertility in the countries which are developing have reduced since the last two decades and the socio-political circumstances have been the main reason behind this. This is because the women have now become career-oriented and they are focusing more on the other factors rather than giving birth to babies and raising them up. Parents do not counsel their children and make them aware about the things that are good and bad for them. Since peer pressure has become very much prevalent in the world today, the children are getting attracted to the practices their friends do. These include consuming drugs, indulging themselves in sexual activities, more importantly unsafe sex which results in teenage pregnancy (Williams, pp. 56).

Teen pregnancy rates in most developed nations have been declining overall since the 1950s, with contemporary rates lower than 1950s rates. Between 1975 and 1995, the United States, declared teen pregnancy as one of the major issues facing their societies. Even in the 1990s, when politicians raised concerns, many did, and still do, question the validity of notions such as “epidemics” of teen pregnancy, not simply because of the historically low rates. Concerns stem instead from social morality that deems teenage women as unfit mothers or of discriminatory practices due to the overrepresentation of women of color and immigrant women in the statistics (Heller, pp. 45).

Regardless of developed or developing nation status, most countries continue to encourage marriage before the birth of a child. In cultures where young women are married soon after menarche, (the age of first menstruation), the age of first marriage and first pregnancy likely occur to an ...