Teen Pregnancy

Aliyah Young

Professor Stiebens

English Composition II

Community Action Letter

Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is a major problem for several reasons such as a) illiteracy, b) social obligations, and c) lack of financial support. For example, many teens who become pregnant hide their pregnancy for as long as they can, which leaves the unborn baby without proper medical care. Also teenagers who become pregnant put themselves at risk for health problems. About half of all Latinas and black girls will become pregnant at least once before age 20. To understand the problem of teenage pregnancy we need to focus on the problems amongst the girls’ lives at home. Some teenage mothers suffer from lack of emotional needs at home. They are vulnerable to feel loved, therefore they are quicker to have sexual intercourse to feel the love they feel they are missing.

Many teen parents neglect their education to care for their child. Early evidence that teen childbearing substantially reduced educational attainment (Card and Wise 1978; Hayes 1987; Mott and Marsiglio 1985) implied that the costs of motherhood force women to sacrifice investments in their own education and training (Becker 19 ; Manlove 21). Teenagers who become pregnant at an early age often cannot pursue their higher education due to the extra responsibility of raising a child, or children, increasing the rate of illiteracy in society. Some teen moms need to work and can not get enough hours working around a class schedule. Without the help of parents or other family members, teenage mothers often have to put their education on hold, and some teens even decide to dropout of high school and find a job to financially support their child. This could be avoided if teens were more aware of how their decisions can affect the rest of their lives.

A teenage mother has to face several social obligations such as not getting a good job, or losing respect from family members, friends, or peers. A teen mom’s entire social life is ruined due to her early age pregnancy, and she must spend her life focused on raising a child. For teenagers who previously had a good social life, pregnancy may be a huge slap in the face to them. She will be unable to participate in extracurricular activities she once was able to. She may soon feel emotions of isolation and abandonment. Some teen moms become overwhelmed with their new lifestyle and may feel like they lost friends and their social life. During pregnancy, lifestyle changes must be made, meaning