Teen pregnancy & abortion

Teen Pregnancy:

• This site from the US government's Dept. of Health and Human Services gives a deep dive into recent trends on teen pregnancy and childbearing.

• The Pew Research Center reports that the teen birth rate has been falling steadily for decades, with rapid declines noticed since 2008.

• Here's a recent NPR interview with a researcher on teen pregnancy, discussing the recent decline.

“Social determinants of health, such as low education and low-income levels of a teen’s family, may contribute to high teen birth rates. Teens in certain settings are at higher risk of teen pregnancy and birth than other groups. For example, young women living in foster care are more than twice as likely to become pregnant than young women not in foster care.” Source: CDC

Other factors that affect the rates of teen pregnancy not only include a lack of education, but also an inaccessability to contraceptives or how to use them correctly. There is even a stigma that surrounds the want of contraceptives or birth control, which then abstains teens from ever wanting to receive them. There are also other factors that can result in unintended teen pregnancies like child sexual abuse. The World Health Orginization’s 2020 report “estimates that 120 million girls aged under 20 years have experienced some form of forced sexual contact. This abuse is deeply rooted in gender inequality; it affects more girls than boys, although many boys are also affected. Estimates suggest that in 2020, at least 1 in 8 of the world’s children had been sexually abused before reaching the age of 18, and 1 in 20 girls aged 15–19 years had experienced forced sex during their lifetime.” Source; WHO.

SIDENOTE: The less education a teen has, the more likely it can negatively affect their overall understanding of what sex is, safe sex, and STDs. The lack of proper preparation for these topics is one of the leading causes for teen pregnancy— and as any type of education goes, teens must be given all available information to be able to learn how to approach the topic of sex smartly, and to understand the consequences of pregnancy at a young age.

• “Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school.” Source: CDC

• “The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and to drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as a young adult.” Source: CDC

• “Pregnant adolescent are at higher risk to get mental health problems such as depression, intense stress and pressure to become parents. They are faced with a lack of support from family and community that will lead to depression, making wrong decisions and abusing drugs.” Source: myhealth.gov

• “On a positive note, between 1991 and 2015, the teen birth rate dropped 64%, which resulted in $4.4 billion in public savings in 2015 alone”. Source: CDC

  • Although there are cases that do not only come from a lack of sex education, the conclusion can be made that more and more teens are learning about safe sex as the years go on which is resulting in a decrease of teen pregnancies.

• Although teen pregnancies can greatly affect an adolescent’s development, there are many cases where teen mothers/parents continue to follow their aspirations and career goals post-birth by finishing high school and even higher education. Source: Sage Open journal.