Teen Pregnancy in New York - Essay Example

Teen pregnancy in New York girls ages 11-16 The United s has the highest rate of the pregnancy amongst the teenagers than any other developed country, for example Canada, England, Wales, Sweden. Billions of dollars are spent annually on the solution of this nation's problem. Before the age of 20 unmarried girl can be pregnant not the first time and almost every pregnancy is undesirable. In the period from 1991 to 2005 there was a 35% decline in the rate of birth amongst teens from 15 to 19. The greatest decline in USA since 1991 was amongst black women. The consequences of such early motherhood can be the following: young mothers rarely end the school and only a few of them get the high school diploma, and of course only 1.5% enters the college; almost all of them live on welfare; and there is a great possibility that the sons of such mothers will end up in jail and that the daughters can become in future also a young mother. And we've mentioned this entire thing, but haven't said anything about the mental and health side of such babies. (East & Felice, 1996) It is more likely that a child would have a mental disorder or some physical defect and so on. Well, teen's pregnancy and then parenthood is a significant problem of modern society. It has an impact on the success in career of the teen mothers but they are considered a burden to the rest of the nation, because they need social help and also the help of the parents of these extremely young mothers in bearing the child. It is in case the mother chooses to leave a baby to herself, but another way out for them is quite widespread - they just give the child to an orphan-asylum. There is an opinion that a significant reason of this problem is the older men who have sex with young girls. But this has no proof yet, because too little study was made on the topic. (East & Felice, 1996) Nowadays a tendency to declining of birth rate amongst teens is observed and this is due to increase of condom use and to abstinence. Many sexually active teenagers use double contraceptive: condoms with birth control pills. Also delay in having a sex plays a great role in teens' birth control. But the government and teachers all over the country is against the policy of promoting the contraceptives and think that the only right and suitable policy is promoting of abstinence. Following this policy teachers should promote the delay of sexual life beginning, and should declare on the lessons that premarital sex leads not only to unintended pregnancy but also to the S.T.D. (Rodriguez & Moore, 1995) But on the other hand, experts are against such teaching behavior, saying that it is wrong approach to protect teens and that they wouldn't follow this advice. The problem is that there are always teenagers who would not listen to it and wouldn't remain abstinent. In this case a promotion of contraceptives is necessary as a way of avoiding pregnancy and different diseases. If a youngster will hear only about abstinence or only the negative information about sex and contraceptives he is more likely not to use any protection at all. (Rodriguez & Moore, 1995) There was one American study which has shown that the teens who had promised not to have a sex until marriage and then had broken the promise and have unprotected sex and then become pregnant. The paradox is that those who don't declare virginity stay virgin much longer than those who do promise it. There is also another opinion that promoting abstinence and contraceptives at the same time is mixed information. Because this confuses the teens and the do not understand the attitude of the society to this sphere of life: they should do it with protection or they shouldn't do it at all. (Bissell, 2000, p. 191) One more thing is that teen girls can't define sex appropriately: the think oral and anal sex is OK if they couldn't become pregnant this way, and consider themselves virgins as they don't have a vaginal sex. So the meanings are very chaotic. (Bissell, 2000, p. 191) In 1996 a bill was approved by which the government gave money to schools and teaching institutions in order to make school programs aiming to promote abstinence, but nothing was said about the effect and benefit of different contraceptive methods. (Sylvester, 1997) The advocates of this movement believe that the decline in birth and abortion rate since that time is due to this very program. Along with the teens pregnancy rate there is a rate of the STD amongst youngsters. It also depresses a great deal. The pregnancy occurs also because of the wrong and ineffective condom use. (Sylvester, 1997) But all the same there are ways of avoiding undesirable pregnancy and the study is the following: many girls, who didn't have premarital sexual experience, say that it is against their religious/moral beliefs, other are afraid of sexually transmitted diseases, and the last asked groups of girls said that didn't find an appropriate partner yet. Other, who have had intercourse, said they did it under the pressure of their guys, not being ready for this morally. Moreover, teenagers who have deep attachments to their parents are likely not to have sex as long as it possible. The best way out is to remain abstinent but do have a notion about the contraception and have an easy access to it. (Sylvester, 1997) Nowadays the use of the condoms amongst teens has increased and they use them in their first physical intercourse. Girls who have intact families are less likely to have sex till 16 (22% of them) than the ones who live in one-family situation. (Hanson, 1993) There is a mistake from the side of the parents of the teens - they don't talk to their children about such things because they think youngsters are little and not ready to listen this information yet. And when they become grandparents they're surprised very much but then it's too late to do something. As the survey has shown many Afro-American teenage girls report the lack of communication between them and their parents. And this is one of the reason they become mothers in the young age. Another survey has found out that 8 from 10 girls and 6 of 10 boys who began sexual activity in the early age wish they did it a few years later. (Hanson, 1993) There are a health risk amongst young mothers, namely there could occur miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death. Moreover, there is a financial side of the teens' pregnancy, because the government money support is 7$ billion annually for the social help for these young mothers. So the stimulus to reduce the teens' pregnancy is very high. Here should be involved the appropriate medical education of the adolescents. The experts believe that medically accurate education for the safe sexual behavior is to begin from the very kindergarten and should uninterruptedly continue in school. (Hanson, 1993) This practice is designed to convince the teens to delay sexual activity until they become older. But there are special educational programs for those who choose to have sexual relationships at an early age. But mostly in all these programs an accent is made on the abstinence and not having sex till marriage. And this is not correct. Because if a teen decides to follow another way she is unprotected speaking about medical knowledge about contraception. Quite all the teenagers have some gaps in sexual protection knowledge; we can name some of them: nearly half of the high school pupils confesses that they need basic knowledge about the HIV/AIDS, birth control and the means of preservation; many of teens would like to know how to use condoms; many would like to know the medical points where they could be tested for the STD; a number of the teens do not know that birth control pills and condoms could be bought without parental permission and any medical prescription. In this respect European countries have made great success. In The Netherlands the sexual education begins very early, namely in preschool, and there are different levels and subjects on the topic. Thus this approach appears to be very effective and the country has the lowest teen birth rate. (Hanson, 1993) In Germany the teens' birth rate is 4 times lower than in the US and the rate of early abortion also very low. France has an educational program aimed to teach the tens all the urgent questions, and it begins when a teen is 13 and parents have no right not to let a child to this courses, it is illegal. And maybe due to it the birth rate amongst teens is 5 times lower than that of US. (Wetzstein, 2001, p. 5) "The United States seems to be following the recent patterns in other developed countries where increased availability and use of modern contraceptives and condoms have led to remarkable declines in teen pregnancy," said lead author John Santelli. "If most of the progress in reducing teen pregnancy rates are due to improved contraceptive use, national policy needs to catch up with those realities." (Wetzstein, 2001, p. 5) The significant role on teen's early pregnancy plays the mass media. almost every four TV program or movie includes scenes of sexual interaction but the means of contraception are rarely shown or even mentioned; there is a correlation between the programs with clear sexual content and the rate of the teen's loss of virginity. The way of solving also may be seen in the easy accessibility of contraceptives, in every time available medical services. But there is another problem which lies in the following - that there are poor layers of US population who cannot afford themselves a number of birth control pills and other means of contraception. (Wetzstein, 2001, p. 5) poor teenagers are more sexually experienced but they often do not use any contraception at all that causes the high rates of pregnancy; when poor and low-income teens become pregnant they are more likely to view their future child as a positive result, and the middleclass and high-income teens on the contrary view this as an obstacle for their future lives. (Sawhill, 2000, p. 40) There are also teens who are engaged in the sexual activity with the older partners, and then there are teens that are already lesbian and bisexual. These layers of the teenagers have great chances to experience an early pregnancy. So a necessity for the government stands in that very meaning that it should make specialized programs to face the problems of these teens. (Sawhill, 2000, p. 40) Teens who have been raped also are more inclined to have early pregnancy. The statistics shows that the third part of the 500 teen mothers was abused by the older men, on average 27-30 years old. (Sawhill, 2000, p. 40) Surprisingly, but in the early pregnancy often considered guilty the girls and the young men are somehow overlooked. But in pregnancy take part two partners so it is the responsibility of both partners and not only a teen girl problem. (Sawhill, 2000, p. 40) 50 % of the teens who already have a baby tend to become pregnant again within a year or two after the first pregnancy. (Wetzstein, 1998, p. 3) So in conclusion we can say that in order to lower the teens birth level the policy of prohibiting the premarital sex is not enough. ''There is nothing in any peer-reviewed scientific journal to suggest that teaching abstinence-only is effective in getting teens to delay sexual activity,'' said one expert, Cynthia Dailard, a lawyer and senior public policy associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Ms. Dailard cited a recent study by the American Psychological Association: ''Researchers have never measured the typical use-effectiveness of abstinence,'' she wrote. ''Therefore, it is not known how frequently abstinence fails in the real world or how effective it is compared with other contraceptive methods.'' The survey confirms that speaking about contraceptives aloud doesn't force the teenagers to become sexually active but protect them form unintended pregnancy and gives a thorough medical knowledge about the safe sexual behavior. (Wetzstein, 1998, p. 3) References Better Health for Teens. (2007, January 7). The Washington Times, p. B05. Bissell, M. (2000). Socio-Economic Outcomes of Teen Pregnancy and Parenthood: A Review of the Literature. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 9(3), 191. Retrieved March 22, 2007, East, P. L., & Felice, M. E. (1996). Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Findings from a Racially Diverse Sample. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Education Matters: Children Think a Baby Is for Teens. (2004). 4. Hanson, G. (1993, March 8). Norplant Joins War on Teen Pregnancy. Insight on the News, 9, 6+. Rodriguez, C., & Moore, N. B. (1995). Perceptions of Pregnant/parenting Teens: Reframing Issues for an Integrated Approach to Pregnancy Problems. Adolescence, 30(119), 685+. Sawhill, I. V. (2000, Wntr). Welfare Reform and Reducing Teen Pregnancy. Public Interest 40. Sylvester, K. (1997, March). Preventable Calamity: How to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), 125, 32+. Teens and Relationships. (2006, April 29). The Washington Times, p. A13. Wetzstein, C. (1998, December 18). Fewer Teens Give Birth Second Time, Study Says. The Washington Times, p. 3. Wetzstein, C. (2001, April 10). Ads Urge Hispanics to Tell Teens about Sex. The Washington Times, p. 5. Read More