Analyze the Teen Pregnancy Essay

I don’t think enough is being done to educate or prepare these teens about how their lives will change in the event of pregnancy. I am especially interested in this issue, because I found myself in this very situation when I was just seventeen years old. I made the decision that was best for me at the time, but wasn’t given all the support I think I needed. I didn’t have anyone to talk to who was going through what I was at the time. I think that teenagers wanting to grow up too fast, peer pressure and television, both reality and fiction, all play a huge role in this problem.

I think the answer to probably not solving this problem, but hopefully lowering the number of teen pregnancies is to better educate our teenage population. All in all, I would like to see teens better educated on teen pregnancy. Also to let them know if that is the situation they find themselves in, that there are options out there for them to choose from. There is someone for them to talk to and confide in about what they are feeling and how they want to proceed.

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There have been numerous surveys of adolescent sexual behavior, but their results have often been inconsistent. There is, however, general agreement about one point: Young people are having sex at an earlier age than they did a century ago. Although this change is just one part of an overall trend toward more liberal sexual attitudes and behaviors, it poses some special problems. In the erotically charged atmosphere of today’s society, young people are often confused about how to deal with their own sexuality.

They see the overwhelming importance given to sexual attractiveness in the media-one study estimated that the average teenager ahs witnessed nearly 14,000 sexual encounters on television- yet they also hear their parents and religious advisers telling them that sex is wrong. As a result, many young people begin having sex without really intending to and without taking precautions against pregnancy. In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57. 4 percent to 46. 3 percent among males and from 50. 8 percent to 44. 9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87. percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms.

Of course, that means that 12. 5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States are still born to teenage mothers. Of sexually active teens, 63 percent reported using a condom during their last intercourse, and 17 percent say they used oral contraceptives, but that still means that 20 percent of sexually active teens had no effective protection against pregnancy.

Why don’t more sexually active teenagers use contraceptives? In some cases, they may actually want to have a child, but most teenage pregnancies are accidental. Many teenagers are simply ignorant about sexual matters and believe such myths as “You can’t get pregnant the first time” or “You won’t get pregnant if you only have sex once in a while. ” Teenagers are also influenced by parents and religious leaders who tell them to abstain not only from having sex but also from using birth control.

Although birth control requires planning and forethought, it is easy to be swept into an unplanned sexual encounter in the heat of passion. Moreover, some teenagers feel that planning a sexual encounter is immoral but that if they are caught up in the heat of the moment and unable to stop, they can’t be blamed for their actions. Finally, teenagers often do not know how to get birth control devices or are afraid that their parents will get angry if they do.