Sex and Teens

12 Pages 2890 Words

ant. Teenage pregnancy happens so often that people hardly even recognize it anymore as a negative affect on our society. Experts estimate that the combination of lost tax revenues and increased spending on public assistance, child health care, foster care and the criminal justice system totals about $7 billion annually for births in teens. Despite a 20-year low in the teen pregnancy rate and an impressive decline in the teen birth rate, the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country (Casey Foundation, 1996). That's not saying a whole lot for our nation. In Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing, researchers note, "During her first 12 years of parenthood, the average adolescent mother receives income and food stamps valued at just over $17,000 annually…" Recent declines in pregnancy and birth rates, however, are encouraging. The rates keep dropping and are showing no signs of increase, yet. The rate of pregnancies has dropped from a peak of 117 for every 1,000 young women ages 15 to 19 in 1990, to 101 in 1995. That 14 percent drop brought the rate to its lowest level since 1975 (Casey Foundation, 1996). Rather than deal with a pregnancy after the fact, more teenagers seem to be trying to prevent pregnancies. Teenagers are learning to better use contraceptives and are using them more frequently than before. Some teenagers are aware of the contraceptives available, but they just choose not to use them. Others may find it difficult and embarrassing to talk to their partners about birth control or contraceptives. Contraceptives such as the condom, Depo-Provera, diaphragm, IUD (intrauterine device), and the pill are effective more than 80% of the time. Some of those, more than 90%. Nine in 10 sexually active women and their partners use a contraceptive method, although not always consistently or correctly. About one in six teenage women pra...