Why is Teen Pregnancy a Disaster?

Teen pregnancy affects about 820,000 women each year, and the majority of these pregnancies are unintended and are women younger than the age of only fifteen. Of all the teenage pregnancies, 79% of the women are unmarried, meaning that they have to rely completely on family and the government to support them rather than a spouse. While teen pregnancy rates have declined over the past few decades due to the increasing age people decide to get married at, the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of the western industrialized world. Not only is this bad for our country due to reliance on welfare money, spending over seven billion dollars each year on teen pregnancies, but it also leads to other negative effects… for example: only two thirds of teen mothers complete high school and by age 30 only 1.5% of mothers have a college degree. Within the first year, half of all unmarried teenage mothers go on welfare, costing our country even more, putting us even farther in debt. On top of that 80% of teen mothers will end up on welfare eventually.

Almost 25% of women who have a child in their teens will have a second child within two years. These children not only often have to grow up in poverty, but the sons and daughters that come from teen pregnancy are also more likely to have hard lives, as they are statistically more inclined to repeat their parents’ behavior. Daughters are 22% more likely to have a pregnancy in their teens and sons are 13% more likely to end up in prison at some point in their lives, both are both are more likely to drop out of school, have health problems, and face unemployment. This may be due to the fact that teens who become parents often lack the key life skills and other resources that are crucial to the parenting process. According to The Urban Child Institute, adolescent parenting is one of the major risk factors associated with early childhood development. In addition to its other effects, teen parenting is likely to hinder a child’s social and emotional wellbeing. Babies born to teenage mothers are also more likely to have difficulty attaining cognitive and language skills as well as other skills like self-control and self-confidence. Though not all babies born to teens are destined to fail. Future problems are not guaranteed by increased risk.

This video shares some more good points about why teen pregnacy is an issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE8R03cChnk