Teenage Pregnancy

There has been a tremendous rise in Teenage Pregnancy in America, during the recent years. The problem of getting pregnant is not such a critical issue, but the decline in marriages cause a lot of problems to the society. Almost three-fifth of the teenage pregnancy is associated with girls at the age of 18 to 19. The percentage of Teenagers who give birth to babies before marriages in America has increased from 47% to 16%. Cultural values in America discourage early marriages, and it is one significant factor that increases the probability of teenage pregnancy (Frances, G, 2011).

In today fast moving world, teenagers avoid the burden of marriages as they would have to take care of their children and husband which give rise to pregnancy intentions. It has made the task for policy makers very difficult as the problem is increasing day by day.

Although many steps and policies were designed by the government, the problem still persists and needs to be death with more effective measures. In 1976, Alan Guttmacher Institute issued a book with the name “11 million teenagers” in order to emphasize the negative impacts of teenage pregnancy. Irrespective of different reforms and parents pressure, the teenage child birth rate, kept on increasing. Teenage pregnancy increased from 23.9 births per 1000 teenagers in 1975 to 31.4 birth per 1000 teenagers in 1985. From 1994 to 1997, the unmarried declined significantly by 9% showing improvements (Maggie Gallagher, 1999).

This change has given a hope that such social problems could be solved with assistance of parents, school and professionals. Still the problem is very huge for the state to solve as ten percent of young ladies within the age bracket of 10-15 get pregnant. This rate is very higher than that of other developed countries which is a big concern for the country.

Initially it was assumed that only women belonging to low income group were mostly involved in teenage pregnancy, but this has not been the case. Even girls of high income bracket have also been involved in it.

Problems faced due to Teenage Pregnancy

Parents, community, social workers and school all discourage teenage pregnancy because of the negative impacts it has on the teenagers. It is important to understand these effects and create awareness among the masses in order to solve this issue. A lady having a baby at such young age typically faces lot health ...