Teen Pregnancy

Maria Cortez-Cervantes

English III

C Brown

March 28, 2013

Teenage pregnancy has been an issue in America and other countries for many years, despite the programs that focus on prevention. It is one of the hardest experiences a young person might ever face, especially when it interferes with school and other plans. It creates an emotional crisis, which results in feelings of shame, fear, and it might appear that you will crumble under the pressures in your environment. (Media)

Even with a steadily declining birth rate, 2 in 5 adolescent women will become pregnant before they hit the age of 20. About 4 out of every 5 of these pregnancies will be unintended; this includes half of those among married teenage girls. Whatever the circumstances are though, the news that they are pregnant comes as a shock and it is often not a welcome one. (American Academy of Pediatrics). In 2008, the US pregnancy rate among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 was 68.8 per 1,000. The rate has been steadily declining since 1991, when it was 117 per 1,000 teens between 15 and 19. (WebMD). In 2011, a total of 329, 797 babies were born to women between the ages of 15 and 19. The live birth rate for this age group was about 31.3 per 1,000 women. This is a record low for the teens in this age group; it’s a drop of 8% from 2010. (Prevention). Fewer babies were born to teenagers in 2010 than in any other year since 1946. (WebMD). For women aged 15-17 birth rates fell 11%. Reasons for the decline are unclear, but teens seem to be less sexually active, also more of those who are sexually active seem to be using birth control than in previous years. Still the teen birth rate in the US remains nine times higher than in other developed countries. (Prevention)

Teen birth rates have declined for all races except for 18-19 year old Asian/Pacific Islanders for whom birth rates didn’t change. The decline was greatest for Hispanic teens with a drop of 11% from 2010. Despite the...