Misconceptions: Unsafe Abortion Among Teenagers

In 2015 there was about 3,978,497 births registered of teen moms in the United states. Teen pregnancy has been a big issue for many years. A large number of teenagers are having unprotected sex that lead to unwanted pregnancy. This issue cause young girls to make a decision on the future of the baby, weather it is to be aborted, given up for adoption or keeping the baby and raising it. This unwanted pregnancy also takes effect on these teenager's social life, school and work.

In today 's society, the rate of teen pregnancy is rapidly decreasing. This may be attributed to decrease in costs of contraception, costs and availability for abortion, and better sex education over time. “In 2014, a total of 249,078 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 24.2 per 1,000 women in this age group.This is another historic low for U.S. teens and a drop of 9% from 2013. Birth rates fell 11% for women aged 15–17 years and 7% for women aged 18–19 years” ("About Teen Pregnancy"). Abortion is a highly debated topic today, for many wonder if the woman should have the right to choose. Those who choose to get an abortion are practically putting themselves on trial in today 's society. To understand why this is so, one must look at both sides of the abortion issue, and compare the facts. Abortion is an extremely controversial issue for many, and polarized, or split, into pro-life

Abortion should not be performed because of the parents’ irresponsibility. According www.operationrescue.org, half of all United States pregnancies are unintended. Four out of ten of unintended pregnancies end in abortion. Approximately 1.21 million abortions happen each year in the United States, so that is about 3,000 abortions each day. About one million teenagers become pregnant each year. This led to an increase in teen abortion. 78% of the teen pregnancy are unintended and 35% choose to have abortion then care for the child It is common

Abortion is one of the most talked about topics in teenage pregnancies. When researching abortion, you find many different view points and ideas to the situation. Some of the more obvious view points are those that are well known such as pro-life and Pro-Choice. Although people have abortions they don’t understand the side affects that come along with them.

The fact that it is not legalized in some states makes it hard for women and teenagers who would like to procure abortion to do so safely. This has led to severe consequences on the side of the women. It is estimated that unsafe abortion accounts for

America has no respect for life even when it comes to human life. Now a day’s unexpected pregnancy is very common in teenagers, and abortions is one of the first choices when a baby is not wanted. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the abortion rate is 13.9 out of 1,000 women aged 15-44.

Abortion is a common debated topic in the United States. It is becoming commonplace in our society. Terminating an unwanted pregnancy is a difficult choice that many women have faced throughout the years. Through out this paper, reasons for abortion, women, underage girls, parental laws, emotions, and the procedures of terminating a pregnancy will be discussed. While there is still more research being done, it is said that abortion can have both negative and positive effects.

Abortion for minors is a major public health concern in the United States. There are more than 300,000 births to teens each year, increasing the risk of both the mother and the baby’s health. Abortions on minors have raised political, clinical, social, and economic awareness. In order to make effective changes to abortion for the minor one must produce empirical evidence, to evaluate policy options for persons involved in public health policy and legislation. In January 2000, Texas enacted a law requiring physicians to notify the parent before an abortion is done with a minor, or notifies at least one parent of the intent to terminate the

24 percent of women having abortions are unmarried teenagers. Pregnancy can be a scary and extremely stressful time in a women?s life. To force a woman who is not ready for a child to go through with the birth is not the answer. Stress is not good for the fetus at all, and could lead to complications in the pregnancy, or even a miscarriage. People also seem to forget about a women?s mental health in these situations. A woman could be haunted for her lifetime of giving birth to an unborn child.

Contraception is the prevention of impregnation by different forms of drugs, techniques or devices. Using two different forms of contraception is the easiest way to receive the best results. Existing since the early 1900’s birth control hasn’t been so easy to obtain due to the criminal code of Canada, which declared that it was an offense to sell, advertise or provide any form of contraception. The legal age of consent for sexual activity is 16; according to Statistics Canada 29.2 out of 1,000 teenage girls between the ages of 15 to 19 got pregnant in the year of 2005. Would this statistic have been lower if teenagers were able to acquire birth control without a struggle? Contraception methods should be more accessible to teenagers.

The Contraceptive CHOICE Project enrolled 9256 women in the St Louis area from 2007. The women were between the ages of 14 and 45 and were mostly young and poor. The study educated them about the full range of contraceptive options and provided whichever one they preferred. Participants were followed for three years. It found a teenage birth rate of 6.3 per 1000 among the study participants, far below the national average of 34.3 per 1000 over the same period. The number of abortions fell by 21% among all women in the study area, compared with no change in the number of abortions in the rest of Missouri (P Obstetrics and gynecology 120.6 (2012):

In 2014, a total of 249,078 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years, for a birth rate of 24.2 per 1,000 women in this age group. Even though this is a historic low for U.S teens it still needs to be addressed to prevent teens on becoming pregnant. Birth rates have fallen 11% for these women ages 15-19 years and 7% for women the age of 18-19 years (2016). It is important to keep these rates down and hopefully continue to decline the number of teen pregnancies. Teens should still be educated on contraceptives. Nearly all unplanned pregnancies occur to women who were not using birth control at all or not using it correctly. The failure rate of birth control pills is 9% and condoms fail 18% of the

The Journal of Adolescent Health stated that the decline numbers in teen births between 2007 and 2012 is attributable to developments in the use of contraceptives. Researchers found an increase in contraceptive use by adolescent of "highly effective methods [of contraception], particularly the pill. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, the number of teenagers girl uses contraception pill increased from 78 percent to 86 percent (2016). The majority of adolescent pregnancies are unintended. These declines are to be celebrated in that we are doing a better job of helping teenagers to avoid unintended pregnancy. Also, researchers wrote that the increased of educational and employment opportunities for women and progress in contraceptive technology may possibly account for the decline in the adolescent

Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls ages 15-19 in LMIC’s (Morris & Rushwan, 2015). The primary reason for these preventable death-causing complications is that teenagers are not properly supplied with contraceptives. Due to these unplanned and unwanted pregnancies approximately 4.5 million teenage girls undergo an abortion each year, with an estimated 3 million of them being performed unsafely (Morris & Rushwan, 2015). Some detrimental complications that may occur from an unsafe abortion are “cervical tearing, perforated uterus and bowel, hemorrhage, chronic pelvic infection and abscesses, infertility, endotoxic shock, renal failure, and death (Morris & Rushwan).” These are potential health problems that can haunt these young girls for the rest of their lives. By arming them with ways to avoid these unwanted pregnancies as community healthcare nurses we can spare them from these torturous side effects. Public health nurses can play a vital role in educating teenage girls on the different methods, benefits, and informatics of contraceptives available to them.

Primary Audience: My primary audience is the citizens of the U.S.; this includes tax payers, parents, state officials, education officials and teen moms. In the U.S. we have several teens that are experiencing unprotected sex, without any knowledge of pregnancy prevention or sex education. When teen girls become pregnant, this also affects the parents. This is a huge responsibility and burden for all involved parties. Health benefits are needed for both the teen mom and the unborn child.