Reproductive Health Knowledge And Unsafe Induced Abortion Among Female Adolescent

Teen pregnancy falls into the category of pregnancies in girls age 19 or younger (NIH). Although statistics have shown a decrease, the number of teen pregnancy in the U.S. is still relatively high compared to the rest of the world. Sexual health is one of the top priorities in early adolescence health in the United States. Consequences of having sex at a young age generally results in unsafe sex practices. The consequences can be due to the lack of knowledge about sex education, and access to birth control/contraception (NIH, 2005). Due to the lack of knowledge and access to birth control, adolescents involve in risk taking when they start to explore sexual intimate relationships.

Based on the cross-contextual analysis and evidence, adolescent pregnancy seems to be a glaring issue. This is due to the fact, that all statistical findings point to the same direction: expressions practiced among the ethnic/racial groups towards the issue. Therefore, will provide analysis on the external factors: programs, policies, and social conditions in the following

Abortion, for the vast majority of people is not a subject that is easy to talk about. According to the World Health Organization, out of the 211 million pregnancies, 46 million end up in abortion and 18 million of those abortions are done in what WHO considers unsafe conditions (World Health Report, 2007). Unsafe conditions are defined by WHO as, “ abortions performed by people lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards, or both” (World Health Report, 2007). The maternal death rate for women who have unsafe abortions is 350 out of 100,000, and there are other complications that are not fatal but can lead to disease or disability (World Health Report, 2007).

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

The opponents of birth control to teens overlook the fact that providing birth control to teenage girls would make sex much safer. Certainly, the unsteady rate of teenage pregnancies would decrease. In previous times, girls between the ages of 16-17 would get pregnant unintentionally. However, in this era, 13 and 14 year old girls are having babies-teens who are completely unprepared to give birth and raise a child. In these instances, if the child is not given up for adoption, the responsibility usually becomes that of the parents. In addition, when teenagers are protected from unwanted pregnancies the number of teen abortions taking place each year could be reduced significantly. According to Guttmacher.org, some states in the U.S have reported that 50 percent of pregnant teens receive an abortion. Not only is this a costly procedure, but it is also

Seeing how high the number of abortion is, it is the job of a public health official to provide both women and men with the education and necessary resources to make decisions about their sexual behavior. In 2010, 18% of majority of pregnancies in our nation sadly ended in an abortion. Even though this study was on such a wide age range, the 20s have been found to consistently majority of the abortions. It is key to keep observing the adolescent pregnancies and abortion rate. In hopes that with the education and the resources help the influence of abortions to decrease. From Abortion Surveillance, public health officials are able to observe changes, evaluate pregnancy rates, analyze the effectives of local programs throughout the U.S. and be able to recognize the types of common characteristics in women who are getting

One of the main reasons for high rates of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. is the continuation of ineffective abstinence based education (Bell, 2009) and not allowing teenagers to make abortion related decisions. In the U.S. Eighty two percent of the teenage pregnancy is unintended and 37 % of total unintended pregnancies result in abortion. Teenagers choose to abort babies because of shame, staying focused on career, unstable financial status to support babies and not getting emotional and economic support from parents. Twenty two percent of pregnant teenagers choose not to tell their parents (ACLU, 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of restrictive contraceptive legislation on unintended teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy has declined steadily over the past 40 years, however in the past decade the rate of pregnancy among adolescents is rising. Restrictive contraceptive legislation such as abstinence only education, mandatory waiting periods, parental notification laws, or Medicaid funding restrictions could all play a part in the increase of pregnancy in teenagers. One study found funding for abstinence-only education programs were linked to increased birth rates among black and white adolescents (Yang & Gaydos, 2010). Another study found restrictive contraceptive legislation resulted in higher unintended pregnancy rates among adolescents. The implication of this review is state and federal policies should focus on improving education regarding contraception use and forming policies which improve access to abortion.

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):

It has been receiving a great deal of public and official attention recently, including expressions of concern from President Clinton (Trad, 1999). However, the most extensive dilemma regarding the issue of adolescent pregnancy is the question of prevention. Preventing teen pregnancy includes such problems as the availability of birth control, sexual education among children and adolescents, and a greater sense of support for pregnant teens. However, before society can begin to successfully prevent pregnancies among teenage girls, the underlying causes and facts about the dilemma must first be exposed

Early on in life, our youths would be able to take better care of themselves. Lecturing teenagers on how to effectively use contraception help them prevent early pregnancy and avoid becoming part of a statistic. At an early age, having an abortion can become a health hazard. “Teenage abortion patients are up to twice as likely to experience cervical lacerations during abortion compared to older women”, said Amy R. Sobie and David C. Reardon, Ph.D. Teaching kids about proper health care helps them with the transition from a girl to a women. Being aware with what’s going on with their body and always protecting their self from experiencing harmful situations (like abortions) is a show of maturity. Enhancing our youth knowledge on birth control devices can only help them in the future on being a responsible

Several research findings indicate that increased rates of death related to abortion complication are as a result of unintended pregnancy, especially among teenagers. According to the United Nations Population Fund annual reports, a total of 6.8 million teen pregnancies occur annually across the world. Among these pregnancies one in five is unplanned therefore half of the unplanned pregnancy end up as induced abortion .research further reveal that there are a lot of misconception among young people about contraceptive (UNFPA ,2010).

The target population is young women because they also have a right to health. 
Besides, pregnancy and childbirth complication is a major cause of death for women age 15-19. The intervention program is called, “Abortion Counseling Care Toolkit: A Program to Enhance the Health of Young Women in Indonesia.” This toolkit is adapted from Ipas (2010), a nonprofit organization in the US that works around the world to increase women’s ability to exercise their 
sexual and reproductive rights, especially the right to safe abortion. It includes guidance for providers and others involved in service delivery on abortion counseling, and contraceptive and clinical care that is appropriate for young women. Because this was developed as a global toolkit, content and activities might not applicable to any specific country or context. (Ipas,

examines the association between reproductive health knowledge and unsafe induced abortion among female adolescents (13-19years) in selected communities in Badagry Local government area of Lagos state.