One-third of girls get pregnant before the age of 20

[The Straight Story]

Overview
The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. The Center for Disease control says that one-third of girls get pregnant before the age of 20. Teenpregnancy.org, a site managed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, states that there are "750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens."

Educating teenagers about contraception makes them more likely to use contraception when they begin having sex, but it doesn't lower the age at first intercourse. Why? Probably because the decision where and with whom to become sexually active is a very complicated one, and may be rooted in family, peers, religion, the media and individual personality factors.

Facts on Teen Pregnancy:
• Teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of high school
• Be and remain single parents
• Score lower in math and reading into adolescence

http://www.livestrong.com/article/12504-teen-pregnancy-rates-usa/

[MountainLaurel]

1. Wow

I never knew the figure was that high.

[RadiationTherapy]

2. So many bad, bad parents! FAIL! you all FAAAAIIIIILLLL!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3897817&mesg_id=3897817

[Romulox]

3. Our society fails at providing education and economic opportunity. nt

[RadiationTherapy]

4. I agree. How does this relate to the OP?

[Romulox]

6. Poverty, lack of education, and lack of opportunity are good predictors of teenage pregnancy. nt

[slackmaster]

5. Thus continuing a trans-generational cycle of poverty

Bummer.

[Warpy]

7. The safest years for childbirth are 18-26

so following the male model of college right after high school and working to establish a career afterward and not marrying and breeding until the 30s doesn't work for us. Too many women find out to their horror that bearing children in their 30s either isn't possible or is a bad idea and that no matter when they have those kids, men think their brains come out when the babies do and derail their careers.

A women's model might be to have families in late teens and 20s and start college at 30 when the kids are out of diapers and most are in grammar school. A career begun then would remain unbroken by pregnancy leave.

There was a movie a few years ago, "Mona Lisa Smile," that detailed a college professor's frustration with women in the early 50s who graduated at the top of their classes from a Seven Sisters school only to become housewives. What that film missed was what happened to those women in the 60s: when their children were independent, they went back to school and got those law degrees and MBAs; or they went into politics or headed charitable foundations. Their educations weren't wasted, sent down the sink with the dirty dish water after supper as the film predicted. I know because I was a country club kid who grew up watching those women.

What we know is that following the male model isn't necessarily good for women, children, or anyone else.

Girls who have children in their late teens or early 20s are just following what their bodies are telling them to do. Writing them off because of it is as big a mistake as it was to write college educated women in the 50s off.

[DemoRabbit]

8. Big Difference Between a Teenager and Young Adult

There is a HUGE difference between having a baby between the ages of 15-17, while you're still in highschool, and in your early 20's and an ADULT.

As a society, we should NOT be striving for our young girls to have babies before they finish school... that IS a huge failing, no matter what their biological clocks are urging them to do.

There's a reason we don't let them drink until they're 21 and vote until they're 18!

And let me say, I WAS a young mother. I had my daughter at 23. I was absolutely capable of being a good mom AND a career-woman. I'm a successful professional and my daughter is a nearly a straight A student in school (now 15) and a kid who doesn't get into a whole lot of trouble. Women CAN have both and CAN do it without getting pregnant in their teens or their 30's.

[Warpy]

12. What is so hard to understand about 18-26?

When was ANYBODY telling this board that kids UNDER 18 should be having kids?

[undeterred]

9. Well my poll from yesterday

showed that only 30% of parents talked to their kids about birth control.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3897908&mesg_id=3897908

I suspect that its more common now than it used to be. So its still not good enough. Parents hope the schools will do it. But talking is not enough. Teenagers need access to birth control.

[daleo]

10. Those numbers seem awfully high

I wonder if they include pregnancies to teenagers that spontaneously abort or miscarry?

[ThomWV]

11. OK, but how many of them are before 18?

I'm sure if your numbers are correct that its still a pretty small portion of the total pregnancies if you just consider the 17-year-olds.