Keanna+S's+OpEd+Article




 * TEENAGE PREGNANCIES**

We all have had that one awkward talk with our parents… you know, the “sex” talk. A good amount of teenagers have had sexual intercourse by the age of 17. Eighty percent of high school students have experienced sex at least once in their life. The worst thing is, statistics state there are about 1 million teen pregnancies a year.

Sources discovered facts on this topic:

1) About 25 percent of teen girls who give birth have another baby within two years.   2) 46 percent of girls who first had sex before age 15 have been pregnant, compared with 25 percent who first had sex at age 15 or older 3) Teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school   4) Teen mothers are more likely than women who delay child bearing to live in poverty and to require public assistance 5) Children of teen mothers are more likely to be born at low birth weight, to have health and developmental problems, and to be abused and/or neglected.   6) Teen mothers and their babies at increased risk for social, economic, and health problems throughout their lives. And the list goes on ...



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 I have a strong belief in abstinence, but I understand for most people that is not the route they go. Teenagers need to practice safe sex. Not only for the harm of their lives, but for a future life. I have known too many teenage mothers, whose babies are affected by the choices of their parents. Why should the child have to suffer for the parents wrong-doing? In most situations the father ends up not wanting anything to do with the child, therefore the mother is raising the child by herself and the child grows up fatherless. Some children do not even have both parents in their life, because the grandparents have taken over raising the baby, due to parents in drugs, jail, or just irresponsibility. Many children began to be neglected. When the child grows older it will begin to affect them in other ways, such as depression, gangs, etc. from not having example of their parents. Also, most girls who were born from a teenage pregnancy are most likely to be pregnant themselves as a teen. ====== 

Having a child is a beautiful things and experience to have; but not when it was not planned and when both parents are not ready for this beautiful experience. A child should never be born an accident. Teenagers need to understand the maturity and responsibility of having a child; therefore if you do not want one at a young age have SAFE, PROTECTED SEX! If you have sex at a young age, be aware of some of the consequences. Be mature, and use you head before. Don’t let a child suffer for your actions.