Teenage Pregnancy Epidemic??

Amber Haynes-Simpson

English 110

Hannah Stephenson

Teenage Pregnancy Epidemic??

In our generation young girls are exposed to shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. It’s no wonder why there is such a large increase in young pregnancies, because they see that their favorite celebrities or new TV shows make it acceptable.

America’s young teenagers need to be educated and not shown happy stories of an extreme amount of young mothers trying to struggle their way through life. Schools should have more sexual health classes that teach young girls about their bodies and when they are at most risk for pregnancies. Speaking from experience, teenage girls are often scared to ask their parents or adults for help like this so they don’t realize the options they have, to abstain from getting pregnant.

Instead of airing documentaries on the lives of these young girls, TV channels like MTV however should have documentaries where more girls choose different alternatives such as abortion or adoption, rather keeping the baby. In an article by Linda Lowen, teen sex expert, she says that “57% of all teenage pregnancies end in birth and stay with the mother and 14% end in miscarriage.” That means that 72% of these pregnancies were most likely going to end with a teenage mother. These girls have no idea about the other options that can be provided to them so easily.

There are websites and places like Planned Parenthood, but for instance, what if these young girls don’t have the resources to get the information from these places. It seems as if we live in a third world country because so many teenagers aren’t fully informed on their sexual relationships. Face it, teenagers will experiment with sex no matter how many rules they have; they will find a way to cure their sexual needs and hormones. That’s why our country needs to realize this and help our youth in order to teach them everything they need to know about their bodies and contraceptive options.

When teenagers don’t have the correct contraceptives like condoms or birth control, they use the withdrawal method. Most times the withdrawal method is used incorrectly and when used incorrectly “Every 100 women whose partners use withdrawal, 27 will become pregnant each year” (Planned Parenthood). Some girls may have the pill, but that doesn’t mean they are fully protected either, and when the pill is used incorrectly “About 8 out of 100 women will get pregnant each year” (Planned Parenthood). Girls don’t understand that the pill must be taken every day at the same time of the day to get the most effect out of it.

In high school both of my two best friends, Chelsea and Molly, had steady boyfriends and weren’t sleeping with multiple partners. Even though they both were on birth control, they weren’t correctly informed on their birth control as much as they should have been. Chelsea didn’t know she had to take it every day at the same time, so she would take it whenever she remembered or whenever she had free time during the day. During our senior year, she became pregnant. Molly became pregnant when she was sick and was taking antibiotics prescribed from the doctor. She didn’t know that the medicine counter-affected her birth control and made it ineffective to her body. They were both smart, normal teenagers, unfortunately they just didn’t have enough information.

Teenage bodies are always changing and mostly in girls because of their menstrual cycle. I had to learn about this from my mom, which was very uncomfortable and hard to ask questions. Young girls need special classes in their high schools or counselors that deal only with contraception and their bodies. Instead of MTV airing 16 and Pregnant, air 16 and Sex; this would teach teenagers about effective ways to maintain from having a baby so early or what your options would be if you do become pregnant so you don’t have to settle with a child so young.

Our society has all the resources and methods that we need to teach younger generations about sex, which certainly they will discover on their own, and have sex no matter how enforcing parents may be. If my friends and my high school had more information, there is no doubt that we would not have such a dramatic increase in young pregnancies or we would not see that “3 in 10 teen girls in the US will get pregnant at least once before age 20”.