Teen pregnancy and the causes: A view by Chris Fox

Teen pregnancy in the United States is on the rise. Heather Hajek, an author for the website, www.healthnews.com states,” Of the 4.3 million births reported in 2006, around 435,000 of the births were to mothers from 15 to 19 years old, an increase of approximately 21,000 more teens having babies than in 2005” (Hajek). This rise in teenage pregnancies comes after a fourteen year decline. What has changed to have this sudden increase of pregnancies among our youth?
Could it be the increase in single parent homes, religious influence, businesses relying on sexual pictures and sex oriented language to sell their products, the obvious lack of education about sex and its consequences to include the proper use of contraceptives and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases or is it the lack of parental guidance?
According to the US Census Bureau under the section labeled, Families and Living Arrangements: 2006, “there were 12.9 million one-parent families in 2006 — 10.4 million single-mother families and 2.5 million single-father families”( US Census Bureau). It is hard to raise children with two parents. A single parent can find the daily routine of raising the children, providing financial stability and maintaining the household a little overwhelming leaving the discipline and guidance of the children “on the back burner.” Thus, the children grow up with food in their belly, a roof over their head and clothes on their backs, but were never accurately educated on the “birds and the bees”.
Religion is a double edged sword in regards to teen pregnancy. It can either play a vital role in preventing it by laying out guidelines for sexual interactions or it can hinder it by not allowing a child to confront her parent(s) about sex. If a person follows the religious teachings they will pick abstinence until they marry, otherwise if a person chooses to have premarital sex they might be reluctant to make it known, leaving them unprotected and uneducated.
Businesses use sex to sell their products. How many times have you been in the checkout lane in your local supermarket and you are visually assaulted by half naked people on the front cover of magazines, or turned on the television and ran into a commercial with a lady in a two piece dancing around promoting face cream or how many times have you been surfing the web and come across sex related sites? Well guess what, your teens are seeing the same magazines, commercials and running into the same sites online that you are. The difference is they are impressionable.
I believe the major culprit is lack of education and openness about sex. With the proper education about the human body, how it reproduces, contraceptives (what they are and how to use them), sexually transmitted diseases (curable and incurable) teenagers will be able to make an informed, educated decision regarding sex. I believe all too often the view is if we ignore it, it will go away.
There needs to be an open discussion between parent(s) and their teenagers about sex and its consequences. Parents need to be open to educating and providing contraceptives. If parents continue ignoring the obvious, that if they want to have sex they will, then the percent of teenage pregnancies will continue to rise. Leaving a nation of children raising children. Leaving behind a mess for society to clean up.
This trend is problematic because it sets up teenagers for a life of hardship and poverty. According to Rebecca Maynard, Ph.D. is a Trustee Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania,” Teenage parents consume a large share of all welfare dollars. Teenage child bearing is estimated to cost over $34 billion a year for the major income social support programs alone (Advocates for Youth, 1994). Indeed, nearly half of all welfare recipients are current or former teenage parents (Maynard Para 10). It is also unlikely that teenage moms will finish or continue their educated also stated by Maynard, “Early childbearing lessens the likelihood that young women will complete their schooling, thereby weakening employment prospects. Just over half of all teenage mothers complete their high school education. Those who do finish high school have especially low basic skills (Maryland Para 7).
If it is one or a combination of the before mentioned situations, the end result is pretty clear. Teenage pregnancy is not beneficial to the teenagers, the parents, the baby or society as a whole.








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Works Cited



Hajek, Heather. "Teen Pregnancy Rate Is On The Rise." HealthNews 09Jan2009: n. pag. Web. . Web Article:

Maynard, Rebecca Ph.D. "Teenage Childbearing and Welfare Reform: Lessons from a Decade of Demonstration and Evaluation Research." WisconsinFamily Impact Seminars. 18. Print.

United States Census Bureau. Families and Living Arrangements. , 2009. Web. .