Facts about Teenage Pregnancy

Some Eye-opening Teen Pregnancy Facts

Teen pregnancy has become rampant in American society and throughout the world. Different studies and researchers have shown startling facts that indicate that children born to mothers under 20 years of age will have a much more difficult life, often below the poverty line.

95% of teen pregnancies are unplanned, and oftentimes these girls have tough lives before they even become pregnant, and they'll only become more difficult after the child is born.

Teen mothers are more likely to have lower incomes, be less educated, and have children with developmental problems. In 2002, only 10% of adolescent mothers graduated from high school, and only 1.5% continued on to get a college degree before the age of 30. Only 33% of teen mothers return to high school to get a degree after the baby is born. It is for this reason that nearly 80% of teen mothers end up on welfare. These facts don't just apply to mothers though; teen fathers earn significantly less than fathers who waited until at least the age of 20 to have children.

The annual cost of teenage pregnancy in taxes, public assistance, foster care, child health care, and even encounters with the law is billion. These statistics don't just apply to teen parents either, the children of these teen mothers and fathers have a much more difficult start in life and are often likely to take the same path their parents did. 80% of children born to unwed high school dropouts will end up on welfare, compared to only 8% of children born to parents who waited until at least the age of 20. 53% of welfare funding is spent on families where at least the first child was born to an adolescent mother.

Teen pregnancy has become a pandemic in a country that has the means to prevent it. Education is often the best answer and spending more money on programs that help to educate kids can help to prevent the rise in numbers of teen pregnancy. Providing contraceptives to teens can help to combat the problem, and spending more time educating them and helping them understand the risks not just of pregnancy, but also of sexually transmitted diseases can help to deter kids from intercourse. While there is never a cut and dry answer to any nationwide problem, bringing the facts and statistics to the forefront of the debate will help to find a solution.

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