Blog # 7
pages 212-265
Rigorous Researcher
As defined in Wikipedia: Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in a young woman who has not reached her 20th birthday when the pregnancy ends, regardless of whether the woman is married or is legally an adult (age 14 to 21, depending on the country).
The current section we read in Boys and Girls Learn Differently touched briefly on sex education and teenage pregnancy. What I hear about this issue on a national level and even in my old high school is startling and an issue that is hard to believe. Not to mention the fact that teenage pregnancy is practically being glorified in the media.
The US has the highest teen pregnancy rates and teen pregnancy costs the US at least $7 billion annually which is a crazy! This problem is greater than most believe it is and it’s only going to get worse if. Some other sobering statistics:
· Just under 1/3 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant in their teenage years. Obviously,
· Every year around 750,000 teenagers will get pregnant.
· Unmarried teenagers having children account for 24 percent of all unmarried expectant mothers.
· More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school, hence the correlation with
· Billions of dollars are spent taking care of teenage mothers and their children and they are more likely to be in the poverty bracket. On the flip side, millions of dollars are spent in prevention programs.
Statistics provided by: http://www.pregnantteenhelp.org
Aubrie R.:
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about the teenage pregnancy issue. One of the statistic you listed was particularly shocking: "Just under 1/3 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant in their teenage years." Wow. That completely blows my mind! My grandmother had my dad when she was only 16, and followed up with her two other sons in the next few years. However, I do not live in my grandmother's time. I, in contrast, just got married at the ripe old age of 28-years-old and have yet to produce any children. I suppose my strict religious upbringing may contribute to the difference in circumstance, but it is still hard for my to grasp that 1 in 3 girls will get pregnant as a teenager.