Providing information and resources for youth

Teen pregnancy: not a popular situation in America today. in general, parents do not want their teens to become pregnant before being able to provide a life for their child or being able to give themselves the best life possible. But what can be done to avoid it? Many Americans believe that the best way to prevent teen girls from getting pregnant is to convince them to not have sex. The belief is that teen pregnancy rate has dropped significantly because more education and resources are being provided, as opposed to still promoting abstinence which  makes teen pregnancy rates increase.

Teen pregnancy is easily avoidable, and there are many accessible resources for families and young girls. A resource that serves 1 out of 5 women in their life is Planned Parenthood. PP has been providing STD screening services, general healthcare, and abortion services for 97 years. From 2013-2014 pregnancy rates dropped 9%, and from 1990 teen pregnancy rates have dropped 50%. Planned Parenthood was able to decrease pregnancy rates because they provide different forms of birth control. They provide the daily pill, implants, or abortion services. PP providing these services lets girls know that they are safe and have these preventative methods. Each year PP prevents 216,000 unwanted pregnancies each year.

Many states across the country provide their students with sex education, ranging from abstinence, sex ed, and HIV. Different states have different requirements to meet, such as that 28 states require courses on healthy sexual relationships. The University of Washington paired with the Center for Disease Control, conducted a study comparing young adults who received comprehensive to sex education to those who did not. The results concluded that educating kids in school greatly helps bring down teen pregnancy rates because knowledge is power. The young adults who had received proper education, had a 50% lower rate of teen pregnancy. Once these kids are given the proper knowledge, and taught that sex is not a taboo, they will stop feel like having sex proves them to be a rebellious teen.

The Federal Government conducted a research study on determining the effectiveness of teaching abstinence only programs. Abstinence only programs teach that students should not be having sex until marriage, and provide no information on Birth Control, STD’s, or HIV. Schools and programs believe that teaching abstinence will decrease the amount of sexual partners children chose to have and amount of sexually active teens. This study concluded that youth enrolled in these programs were no less likely to become sexually active, and it did not provide them the necessary resources to make informed decisions later on in life.

A resource like PP is necessary for young girls, and should be continued to receive funding because it clearly does an effective job.Knowing key statistics and the proper way to approach sexual education with young adults is essential to lowering teen pregnancy rates. This is significant because we need to be able to take care of our youth, including teens and newborns. Teens having newborns can cause many complications and hardships, to those surrounding them,and  those who take care of infants when situations are not ideal. Maintaining a persistent sexual education program has been proven to lower teen pregnancy rates, and is essential to maintain. Not every teen pregnancy can be avoided, sex is apart of life, but those who find themselves in situations of unwanted pregnancies should have the information and resources.


Works CIted

"Pregnancy and Childbearing." Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, July 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"By the Numbers." Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Sexual Activity." Statistics. Resource Center for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Support SIECUS!" SIECUS. Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States, Mar. 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.


Comments (4)

Aniya Linder (Student 2018)
Aniya Linder

This is a very informational 2fer and I like it. The statistics are very eye opening and in a way shocking because it's sad how much the youth is uneducated on safe sex.

Kaamil Jones (Student 2018)
Kaamil Jones

This was a really good piece. This really made me understand why teaching abstinence isn't great at all. I think as a society we need to work with real world problems instead of living in this fake abstinence life.