Informing teens about teen pregnancy isn't working?or is it?

Question

I have to do a thesis paper for my class. My topic is Teen Pregnancy.
My thesis is, Informing teenagers about Teen Pregnancy isn't helping much to reduce it.

People have been informing Teens in school about Teen Pregnancy and is it really helping much to reduce teen pregnancy? It is for some people but our country ( US ) is still the highest country in the world with the most pregnant teens, and performances of abortion. What else can we do to prevent teens from becoming pregnant. Yes most of the pregnancies are unexpected but still, don't you think. I have no offense against the women who are pregnant teens. I in a way admire your courage to keep the baby. We educate them in school and still they don't listen and don't think and get pregnant. I'm not saying having sex as teenagers isn't a bad thing but think about it. Was it worth it? Is he worth it? Can you trust him? What if the condom breaks?
What do you think?

Answer 1

The only way to stop the epidemic of teen pregnancy is to make effective birth control free of cost and readily available to sexually active teens. Where I grew up as long as you were over 13 you could get pills in 6 month quantities, for free, without parental permission and with no physical exam. As a result I never knew anyone that got pregnant in high school.

Answer 2

I by NO means condone teen pregnancy but I would be a hypocrite if I said it is horrible, ect. I got pregnant when I was 17 and I was scared to death, but thankfully I had the most wonderful supportive family and an equally wonderful boyfriend (now my husband) We took responsibility and we now have a beautiful 8 year old son and we have been married 9 years and I dont think we could ask for a better life than we have now. I truly think it depends on the persons personality and maturity level...of course Im talking about older teens, I think it is a tragedy for a 13, 14, and so on to ever be pregnant. I definately think that there are teens having babies that should NOT be parents in any way shape or form, but for people like me who had a support system and decided to take responsibility and are willing to give up the way your living your life at the time to start a new life with your precious baby, I think that it has the potential to be okay. I love my son with all my heart and would not change a thing now, but of course I think the 'wiser' thing to do would of course would have been to have safe sex and wait until we were much older. I thank God though that everything turned out okay for us.

Answer 3

Education at school is great. These children need to be educated starting at home. The world we live in with 1 or 2 parent families and incomes it's hard. Parents are exhausted and truth be told don't pay enough attention to what there children are doing. They work give the kids money or credit cards and then freak out when they spend the money on drugs, alcohol, or a so called good time. Teens are getting there advice from other teens as well and looking up to celebrity's as there role models. Alot of people are over worked under payed, or workaholics trying to show off the material items to others but become a slave to work and put there children 2nd and sometimes last. It's sad a complete LOSS OF MORALS! Take a look at who's raising the kids.

Answer 4

As a Canadian who has read the questions regarding sex on this site, mainly from Americans. And who is not so advanced in age and has a sister who just started highschool, I must disagree.

American society is NOT educating their youth. Most people do not know the basics about menstruation, ovulation, and sperm production. They do not know the basics of male and female hygene, let alone about STIs. They do not have accurate information about birth control.

Without accurate and timely information I don't think you can say education is failing, because I don't see the education happening at all.

Many, many people on here, mainly Americans have been told that pre-ejaculate contains 3 times more sperm than ejaculate. Logically and scientifically that isn't true.

Many women believe that an unfertilized egg causes menstruation. There was a question recently asking if your body releases two eggs and one is fertilized does the other still cause menstruation. Women can menstruate whether they ovulate or not. Some also ovulate and never menstruate. Yes on average most women ovulate two weeks before menstruation and only realease one egg, but this obviously isn't true for all.

Go through the questions both here and in Women's Health and see how many times people ask if they need to use contraception during the "off" week of taking the pills or the patch. Obviously they have not been informed of how the pill works by school, the healthcare provider that wrote the prescription, the information from the pharmacist or the booklet that comes with the pills. The booklet is either unclear or goes unread (I suspect it isn't read). If so many people do not know whether or not the pills work during the off week what do you think the chances are that they actually know how to take it properly to prevent pregnancy.

Almost NO people (including Canadians in this regard) know how a condom is supposed to fit. People are unaware that they come in different sizes FOR A REASON.

Almost no one I have spoken to online or in person is aware of the existance of Lea's Shield a cervical cap that is available without prescription or fitting. No one seems to know that IUDs are more effective emergency contraception than Plan B.

I think if more teens were aware of methods of birth control besides the pill and condoms they would be more likely to use the recommended two forms. Also I don't think that schools are telling kids you need to be using two because one can fail. Kids are just told that spermicide, the sponge, cervical caps, diaphrams, etc aren't effective or don't prevent STDs they aren't told that they are highly effective when used with condoms. Though they all have side effects, spermicides for example EVEN THE ONES ON CONDOMS can increase the chances of getting STIs. Cervical caps and diaphrams can increase UTIs.

So while the sex education system in Canada isn't great, I think it is blowing the US education out of the water and our teen pregnancy rates are lower. I think the message "Don't have sex, if you do use a condom" really is all US teens are getting and that isn't anywhere near education.

Answer 5

There's a difference between a plan to reduce teen pregnancy and a plan to reduce sexual activity among teens.

If we had an iron will to reduce teen pregnancy, then we could move toward birth control implants that last for several years til the girls get out of high school, at least. Or develop a similar mechanism for the boys. Or both. Or freely distribute the Plan B pill. Make it virtually unnecessary for any girl to get pregnant before she's 18.

To reduce sexual activity, we'll have to make it desirable to stay abstinent. I don't think it's terribly effective to treat the subject with the usual dire warnings. Nor do I think it's terribly effective to be all laid-back about it and just hand out condoms. The bottom line is: Sex is for adults and not for kids. Of course, adolescents will take umbrage at this, but hey, what's adolescence about if not to take umbrage?

Answer 6

I went to high school in the 80's
I was taught that you should wait to have sex
If you do not, this is what to do
Girl use birth control (many to choice from)
Both Never have sex without a condom
Always use spermicide

Teenagers today think that pulling out before coming is birth control. They are not Taught how not to get pregnant
I was 25, and married when I used the the birth control
Teenage pregnancy today is due to people not teaching how not to get pregnant
In high school and college condom's were handed out because of Aids
Today Aids is not a death sentence, so they do not thing giving out condoms is a good idea
If teenagers are told how not to get pregnant, never to have sex without an condom, teenage pregnancy will go down

Answer 7

Most schools are not actually informing teens about pregnancy. That is not part of the standard "abstinence only" sex ed class.

Look online for the latest stats- teen pregnancy has gone down in the US in every population except in the hispanic population. Also look up what most schools teach as far as sex ed. If you wanted to get REALLY involved, look up the differences in curriculums in schools based in areas with a higher hispanic population versus schools in primarily white populations.

I think the primary prob;em is that as a whole, we are not educating our teenagers enough. we are still treating them like children when we know they are acting as adults, and we are ignoring the consequences.

I'll step off the soap box now.

Answer 8

I taught sex ed during the heyday of Clinton's prosperity, when funding for sex education was abundant. People were more liberal then, too, meaning parents and hence, school boards, so you didn't have this misguided, conservative, religiously-based backlash against informing kids. Nowadays, the schools are either under-funded or not funded at all, scared to even MENTION contraceptives, so "abstinence-bases" sex ed (rather an oxymoron!) is the norm.

To make things worse, many parents (I've mentioned this elsewhere here) DO NOT TALK WITH THEIR KIDS about sex, drugs or much of anything! Some parents are so sadly lacking that they even encourage their daughters to get pregnant so they'll have something to do with their empty nests!

This whole pregnancy/AIDS epidemic is almost ENTIRELY the fault of adults giving out bad or no information to kids! Parents need to wake up, stop voting down tax increases for schools, stop electing right-wing politicians who bow to pressure from religious groups and big business (for tax cuts) and START talking to their kids! We can't expect teachers to do everything! they only have the kids for a few hours every day. Health teachers have less time with them.

My kid knew about where babies came from by the time he started school and about sex (pretty much everything) before starting middle school. By age 14, he knew all about contraception, STDs, alcohol, drugs, smoking...the works!

Study after study has shown that teens who KNOW about contraction are far less likely to engage in sex at all, or in unprotected sex. It's just the reverse of what the "moral majority" always said (that if kids knew about sex, that would make them have it...how absurd!).

Parents...GET BUSY! If you don't feel comfortable talking to your kids, then take a course. Almost every community college has one. Lobby your schools to hire health teachers. There is NO excuse for perpetuating ignorance!

Whoever said that teens need to "feel what it's like to have a kid" is NUTS!!! That's like saying that you need to be in jail to stop being a criminal! That may be true for some, but is NO way to run a society! For crying out loud, do people have SO little faith in today's teens? It's sad!

Answer 9

Teen pregnancy is high because adults don't tell the truth or they start too late. Every third grader should know how a condom works, and then teen pregnancy will be a thing of the past.

Answer 10

Since no one believes in giving teens honest information about sex, and people only tell them about the dangers of it, teens don't trust what they are told. Can't say I blame them. With everyone saying, "don't do that--it's fun, but for grown-ups" its no wonder teens are so confused--with one third thinking sex is evil and looking down on the people having it, one third having sex (and more than half that third being irresponsible about it, and another third wishing they knew about sex and making bad decisions in their early relationships from this curiosity.

Teen pregancy is down in this country, but we won't compete with other countries unless we make birth control and honest answers about sex available to teens. There will always be a few wild kids who will try anything for a thrill, but most kids are trying to grow into responsible adults. Getting good information about relationships and sex to teens would probably make a lot more of them willing to wait until they are older, and would cut down on pregnancy among those who decide not to wait.