Teenage Pregnancy Gathering Information-Notes

Teenage Pregnancy Notes- Article 1

"Update: Teen Pregnancy." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 6 July 2007. Web. 23 Sept. 2010. <http://www.2facts.com/article/i1200370>.

• ·         There has been a decline of teenage pregnancy since 2002, but the government thinks that the rate is still very high and needs to be much lower.
• ·         U.S. black and Hispanic teens have a much higher risk of becoming pregnant then white people.
• ·         Teen pregnancy causes many health problems to the mother and the baby, and sometimes leads to poverty later on.
• ·         Around 900,000 teens become pregnant every year in the United States, most of the kids in the 18 and 19 year group.
• ·         A major way to reduce the amount of pregnant teens is to teach them more about birth control, and to try to get them to avoid sex until marriage.
• ·         Schools are debating whether or not they should have sex education classes. It leads to controversies about how birth control makes teens want to be sexually active, and that the “abstinence only” rule should include not even learning the sex education.
• ·         People say, “If for no other reason, students should be educated about birth control so that they will be familiar with it later, when they are out of high school,” but those are only the people who support sex ed.
• ·         “Birth control does not always prevent pregnancy if it is misused,” supporters of “abstinence only” explain. “It also sends teens the message that it is acceptable for them to engage in sex. And even if pregnancy is avoided, teens who have sex run the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or suffering emotional problems.
• ·         Children born to teens have major health problems including low birth weight (greater risk of dying as an infant), and of developing blindness, deafness, mental and respiratory problems, and cerebral palsy.

• ·         The teenage mothers are also at risk for a lot of problems, both health and financial, like hypertension and anemia.  Financial issues including a larger chance of living in poverty. Teen mothers also have a less likely chance of getting their high school diplomas, and less than 2% of pregnant teens get there college degree by the age of 30, which leads to a harder time getting a good job.
•       Since the teen moms are usually poor to start off, their child usually ends up to be poor and live in poverty.
• ·         There is no major reason why there was such a decline in the amount of pregnant teens since the 1990’s, but there are some reasons why it was lowered including:

o   Sex education was intensified and shared with many different schools

o   AIDS and HIV have become more popular, and less people want to take the risk

o   Condoms and birth control have been used more often

This graph shows the many different races in the U.S. and which ones on average get pregnant (in thousands)