Teen Pregnancy

On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices. Teen Pregnancy On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices. Teen Pregnancy Teen pregnancy is a growing epidemic in the United States. Teen girls are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate, with a lot of the pregnancies planned. With television shows broadcasting shows such as â€Å"16 and Pregnant† and â€Å"Teen Mom†, it is giving teenage girls the idea that it is alright to have premarital sex and become pregnant. It is in a way condoning teen pregnancy. I am interested in discussing teen pregnancy and the options that are out there for the teens who find themselves in this situation. 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. 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 â€Å"You can’t get pregnant the first time† or â€Å"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. Teen Pregnancy Subject:Argumentative Synthesis Research Paper Sheltering the youth from birth control does not decrease the percentage of teen pregnancy but it fact helps initiate unprotected sex. The increase in teen pregnancy is due to, inadequate sexual education available to adolescents, lack of knowledge and resources for birth control, and the environment the individual grew up around. Research Questions Does providing adolescents with birth control increase teen pregnancy 1 Is there enough information on the consequences of unprotected sex easily accessible to today’s youth 2 Is the environment a teen lives in a factor of getting pregnant at a young age 3 Are parents willing to inform their child(ren) about the consequences about unprotected sex 4 Are parents more excepting about their child having sex if they know they are using protection 5 How does having condoms at easy access for teens result in unprotected sex Sources ttp://www. solutionsforamerica. org/healthyfam/teenage-pregna ncy. html http://www. escrh. eu/about-esc/news/young-people-report-high-levels-unprotected-sex-and-barriers-affecting-their-right-ob http://healthpsych. psy. vanderbilt. edu/condomConumdrum. htm * Write a brief paragraph here Three Supports for Thesis Statement * Teenage pregnancy and birth rates both dropped in the 1990s among all racial and ethnic groups.Increased use of contraceptives and increased abstinence * Teenage pregnancy is linked to several risk factors including: being poor, living in a single-parent household, child abuse, and risky behaviors such as drug abuse and early or unprotected sex * On average, only half of young people surveyed across Europe (55%) receive sex education in school compared to three quarters across Latin America (78%), Asia Pacific (76%) and the USA (74%) Arguments and Rebuttals * With the easy access of condoms there is more risk for teen pregnancy * Some positive aspects of providing condoms included that providing ondoms could reduce incidenc e of unwanted, teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDs. Secondly, a comprehensive sex education program including condom provision accepts the inevitability of adolescent sex and encourages students to make wise, â€Å"safe† decisions if they do have sex. * There is enough sexual education available to the adolescents in our society * Comprehensive health education or sexuality education that includes information on contraception; this may delay sexual initiation and increase contraceptive use.Youth development programs that include sex education along with other activities such as, volunteering, mentoring, and job training are associated with delayed first sex and lower teenage pregnancy rates * The environment that an adolescent is exposed to has nothing to do with the outcome of teen pregnancy * It was found in a study by the American Medical Association that â€Å"Teens who live in neighborhoods that have high levels of poverty, low levels of education, and high residen tial turnover are at a higher risk for teen pregnancy†(AMA,7).A similar study found that family factors also contribute to the rising rate of teen pregnancy. These include the income level of the family, as well as the family structure. Teens that were born to teenage parents are also more likely to become teenage parents themselves Reference Page Reising, Michelle. â€Å"Condom Conundrum: Should Condoms be Available in Schools?. † Health Psychology Home Page. Ed. David Schlundt. Vanderbilt University, n. . Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . â€Å"Teenage Pregnancy Prevention. † Solutions For America. Healthy Families and Children, n. d. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . â€Å"Young people report high levels of unprotected sex and barriers affecting their right to obtain trustworthy information about sex and Teen Pregnancy On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices.