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Babies Having Babies : Why The Government Should Try To Reduce Teen Pregnancy

Did you know 3 in 10 teens in the United States will get pregnant at least once before

they turn 20? (11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy 1) Teenage pregnancy has become a

worldwide concern and has created a lot of attention. However the numbers have

lowered teen pregnancy is still matter in our society. ​The government should do more

to reduce teen pregnancy because teen pregnancy leads to abortions, teen pregnancy

leads to depression and teens tend to drop out school.

Kristen Fitzgerald was only 17 years old when she found out she was pregnant.

Kristen lived in a small town in Mississippi she was a cheerleader and very popular in

high school. When Kristen found out she was pregnant her friends ran away “ as for the

rest of my friends, it was a scene from a movie I got pregnant, and they ran away”

(Fitzgerald 1). Kristen boyfriend even pulled away from her “ the more I started to show,

the more my boyfriend would pull away eventually they all stopped calling” (Fitzgerald

1). Kristen had a hard and emotional time “it was hard and emotional because I had to

go through all of these physical changes, doctor appointments, and they were all hanging

out” (Fitzgerald 1). Pregnancy causes depression when you are not able to do the things

you usually do when your friends and when you feel all alone.

According to Michelle, Bolyn in “About Teenage Mothers and Depression”

changes in hormones leads to depression. “10% of new teenage moms experience

postpartum depression” (Bolyn 2017). Postpartum depression leads to having trouble

bonding with the child. Many teen moms feel stressed and nervous about becoming a

mother and may have thoughts about harming the baby or herself. Teen moms can have

trouble eating, sleeping, difficulty concentrating , and thoughts of suicide. Depression

increases the probability of becoming a teenage mother. ​“ Teenage mothers had higher

levels of depression than other teenagers or adult mothers” (Collingwood 1).

Depression for teenage mothers ranged higher than their peers before they became

pregnant and remained higher after child bearing. In “ Teens Moms Are More Likely

to Get Depressed “​ postpartum depression is nearly double for teen moms.

Gloria Malone was 15 when she had her daughter said “I was happy but I was

tired, overwhelmed and felt like I had no one to talk to because everyone seemed to

busy I needed somebody to talk to and the extreme isolation I felt due to society and

people pushing me away and kept me from finding someone to speak to” (Malone 1).

The postpartum mood will grow if a mother has a weak support system or experiencing

financial instability. Suitably to a survey of 6,400 Canadian women the highest rate of

postpartum depression comes from girls age 15 to 19. In conclusion, the government

should do more to try to reduce teenage pregnancy because it leads to depression of the

teen mom which can cause her to harm the child or herself.

Another reason why the government should do more to try to reduce teenage

pregnancy is because it leads to abortions. Abortion is caused by not being ready for

responsibility, too young to have a child, can’t afford the child or concerned about how

having a baby would change her life. 35% of teen moms decide to have an abortion

than 78% are unintended bear with the child. 18% of U.S abortions are from teenagers.
Many soon to be teenage moms don’t want their lives changed by the birth of the baby.

A foster care child found out she was 3 weeks pregnant when she went to the doctor

at the age of 16 and had no support. “ I had to decide whether to keep the baby, have

an abortion or keep the baby and give it up for adoption.” “ I began to think about all

the things I wanted to do with my life that would be hard to do if I had a baby I

wouldn’t be able to go to college full-time, I wouldn’t be able to keep the money from

a job if I had one, I would have to buy baby clothes , milk and diapers and pay for a

babysitter just to leave the house.”

Abortion is a hard decision to make but when you have no financial support and

when you don’t want to give up your teenage years because you are a child trying to

raise a child. Soon to be teen moms don’t want their lives changed “ 7.5 per 1000 for

teens 15 to 17 and 22.2 per 1000 among teens 18 to 19” this shows that according to

the percentages when teens decide to have abortions it’s because they don’t want their

lives changed. “ Teen moms feel like they are not able to afford the baby” (Lowen

2017) this quote is defending my argument because teen moms get abortions because

they are not ready to take on the responsibility of being a mother.

Teen mothers are also worried about financial responsibilities. According to “

Teen Abortions “ about a quarter of all teen pregnancies end in abortions. “teens may

choose to have an abortion because they have concerns about how having a baby would

derail important personal goals.” In conclusion the government should do more to reduce

teen pregnancy because many teen pregnancies end in abortions due to the lack of

support , not being able to raise a baby and being too young. Abortion is never the right
answer unborn are human beings with a right to life. Abortion takes away a human life.

There are many other safer tools other than abortion like adoption. Abortion does not

only affect the child but also the mother in both dangerous and physical ways 249

women have been killed by legal abortions. A child should be a blessing not a lesson.

Abortions can compound in a tragedy and it takes innocent lives . A baby should

not be killed because the mother is not ready to take on the responsibility. Abortions

avoids responsibilities teens are not willing to take. Choosing to have an abortion and

denying life to a child who already exists is irresponsibly and wrong. You should not be

able to take deny someone of life just because it is inside of you and you don’t want

to take care of it.

The last reason why the government should try to reduce teen pregnancy because

it leads to teen moms dropping out of high school. Only 40% of teen moms finish high

school. When teens get pregnant , most dropout of school. According to “ Teen

Pregnancy, Discrimination, and the Dropout Rate” approximately 70% of teenage girls

who give birth leave school. This shows why the government should do more to try to

reduce the teen pregnancy rate because the rates among teen drop outs due to pregnancy

is increasing instead of decreasing among teens the ages of 15 and 17. Pregnancy is the

number one reason why girls leave school. 40% of teen moms finish high school suffer

educational challenges. It does not only make it difficult to complete education, career,

and other life goals it also affects future prospects for their children.

Rates for teen pregnancy are even higher for African American and Latino girls.

Research shows children of teen mothers begin kindergarten with lower skills of school
readiness they have lower math, reading scores, language and communication skills, social

skills, and physical. “ Nearly one in four Americans and four in minorities do not

complete high school. “ (Shuger 2012) “Pregnancy among White and Asian students has

decreased , while pregnancy rates for American, Indian, Alaskan, Hispanic, and Black

students have been unchanged.” (Mangel 2010)

Another reason teen mothers are dropping out of school is because of

discrimination among pregnant teens. According to “ sometimes the most subtle form of

discrimination can be enough to push pregnant teens out of school.” Schools are refusing

to give excused absences for pregnancy related doctors appointments, disparaging,

discouraging, and disapproving. Many teens are ashamed and don’t feel comfortable in a

school environment while pregnant (Mangel 2010) . “ Once I developed morning sickness ,

I decided to share the news with my school nurse. She told people within 24 hours ,

students gathered in her office to gossip about my situation.” (Runkles 2017)

Discrimination can be tough on teen moms when everybody is gossiping about

you, your situation and looking down on you like you are a failure or like you are any

different from them. “ As I wrestled with the personal and private decision of what to do

about my pregnancy, I could feel the eyes of my entire school, teachers and students

alike, bearing down on me.”(Mangel 2010) Discrimination can lead to mean judgments to

painful confrontations with students and also teachers. “ I had always been seen as an

intelligent and thoughtful student , but suddenly I found myself inhabiting in their eyes

the racist, sexiest stereotype of a Latina who gets pregnant in high school.” (Mangel

2010) Discrimination should never be the answer just because a teenage girl gets
pregnant does not mean she is not capable of doing the things everyone else is doing.

Teen mothers are still eligible to graduate, go to college, get a job and be able to

conquer what they want to be in life.

In conclusion with all this being said the government should do more to reduce

teen pregnancy because teen dropout is never the answer while being pregnant or already

having the child. Abortions should never be the scenario just because the teen does not

feel like she is ready to be a mother, or if she feel like she does not have to right

financial support. Lastly depression because it leads to harming the child or herself

because she is sad she is not able to hang with the friends, or she feels lonely, and

feels stressed and nervous about becoming a teen mother.

 This graph shows the teen pregnancy rate among teens 15 to 19.

Citations

1. “Teen Pregnancy, Discrimination, and the Dropout Rate.” ​ACLU of Washington,​ 19 July

2017, www.aclu-wa.org/blog/teen-pregnancy-discrimination-and-dropout-rate.

2. “The Drop Out Crisis and Teen Pregnancy.” ​Progressive Policy Institute​, 10 July 2012,

www.progressivepolicy.org/blog/the-drop-out-crisis-and-teen-pregnancy/​.

3. “Depression and Teenage Pregnancy.” ​Psych Central,​ 17 July 2016,

psychcentral.com/lib/depression-and-teenage-pregnancy/.

4. Jones, Rachel K., and Kathryn Kooistra. “Abortion Incidence and Access to Services In

the United States, 2008.” ​Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health​, Blackwell

Publishing Ltd, 10 Jan. 2011, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1363/4304111/abstract.

5. Lowen, Linda. “The Top Reasons Why Teens Choose Abortion.” ​ThoughtCo​,
www.thoughtco.com/why-teens-choose-abortion-3534251​.
6. Bolyn, Michelle. “About Teenage Mothers & Depression.” ​LIVESTRONG.COM,​ Leaf
Group, 14 Aug. 2017,
www.livestrong.com/article/136548-about-teenage-mothers-depression/​.
7. Fitzgerald, Kirstin. “Pregnant at Prom: My Life as a Teen Mom.” ​Teen Vogue,​
TeenVogue.com, 24 Feb. 2016,
www.teenvogue.com/story/teen-pregnancy-real-life-story​.
8. youth communication (content / design) and codeHorse.com (programming). “Abortion:
It Was the Right Choice for Me - Anonymous.” ​Represent​,
 www.representmag.org/topics/sex+&+pregnancy/Abortion:_It_Was_the_Right_Choice_f
or_Me.html?story_id=FCYU-2001-05-02b​.
9. “​11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy.” ​DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change​,
www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-teen-pregnancy.