Teen Pregnancy, Abortion Rates, And Hiv Statistics

Studies show that the national average for an adolescent’s first sexual intercourse encounter is seventeen years old. Despite this number being very close to the average age in other industrialized countries, the United States holds a higher percentage of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction than those countries (Harper et al, 2010, p. 125). It’s becoming evident that while a majority of the nation’s youth is sexually active, they are not doing so with the appropriate knowledge to keep themselves and others healthy.

Over the last few decades the rates in teen pregnancy have been a debate; did they rise over the past few years or did they actually decline? Contrary to some doctors and politicians the numbers associated with teen pregnancy have decline over the last couple of years. Although there are still people out there who believe this to be an issue it’s made more of an issue than it actually is. The ads and commercials are set out to scare teen-agers into believing that were at an all time high for this issue, but realistically its actually the exact opposite. Teen pregnancy rates haven’t dropped on there over the course of the years. There are a few major factors that have contributed a great deal to this change. Those changes include but are not limited to: more resources being available to these teenagers to prevent themselves from becoming pregnant, society is more open to talking about this issue as well as the religion and culture change aspect of families today. Despite the beliefs of others, teen pregnancy rates are at an all time low for the first time in decades.

Although popular opinion sometimes indicates otherwise, according to a statistical analysis from the US Department of Health and Services (2014), teen pregnancy rates have been steadily declining for the past twenty years. In America, most teenagers are not yet fully independent

Sexually active teens that don’t use birth control have a 90% chance of getting pregnant within a year (Guttmacher Institute). Most teens refuse to use birth control for their own personal reasons. Teens use birth control to opt out of having protected sex” (Center for reproductive Rights 80). There is a high percentage rate of teens that actually use condoms during sex. 74% of females used contraception the first time they had sex (Guttmacher Institute). The percentage of teens that used more than one form of contraception is very low. Approximately 25% of sexually active teens use 2 methods of birth control during sex (Guttmacher Institute). The rate of teens that use condoms and still get pregnant is very low. During the first year of “typical use”, 20 of teens under the age of 18 using condoms for contraception get pregnant within one year (Abstinence Programs 75). It proves that abstinence programs reach teens that are not easily influenced by sex.

The United States of America is known for many of its outlandish and outrageous statistics in comparison to other countries. Statistics regarding obesity, homicide rates, and political issues have displayed many of the nation?s weak points. However, the amount of teen pregnancy has become so excessive that it is becoming a cry for help and a statistic that is greatly standing out and can no longer be ignored. In 1999 about one million teenagers experienced a pregnancy. This rate was twice the amount in England, Wales, and Canada and nine times greater than that of the Netherlands and Japan. About 78% of these American teenage pregnancies were said to be unplanned.

In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States

One major problem in America’s society today is teen pregnancy rates. In fact, “teen sexual activity, pregnancy, and childbearing are associated with substantial social, economic, and health costs” (Sedgwick). However, this problem is not one without a solution. The rise of teen pregnancy rates can be prevented and reversed by providing better access to birth control for teens, eliminating the negative connotation that accompanies abstinence, and implementing more efficient sex education in public schools.

Where in the first world would one expect the teen pregnancy rate to be the highest? Surprisingly, it is the United States that has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any first world country, more than double the rate of twenty other first world countries and almost ten times greater than that of Switzerland. While some of the disparity can be attributed to factors such as income inequality, the presence of abstinence only education has a major impact on birth and STD rates in the United States in comparison to other countries with more comprehensive programs. It is clear that this difference in approaches has a significant effect, and the United States needs to act to ensure the health of its citizens. Urgent actions are necessary

The report states according to the Healthy People 2020, the birth rates of 15 to 17 year olds will decline from 40 to 36 out of 1,000 and that of 18 to 19 year olds will decrease from 116 to 106 out of 1,000 by the year 2020. The national goal is also to increase the number of sexually active teens who use condoms and/or contraceptives and open the lines of communication with parents and caregivers. There are no significant state-by-state trends, the demographics are grouped in race and age. The report reflects past research as far back as 1960 and compares the higher birthrates of the nineties hundreds to the lower teen birth rates of the twenty- first century. While culture was not a factor for these statistical purposes, ethnicity

The reason abstinence-education was pushed back in 1996 was because it became evident that the United States had the highest teen pregnancy rate of all industrialized nations (Sather & Zinn, 2002). But over 20 years later, after continued funding and support of abstinence-only education, the United States still remains the leader in teen pregnancies throughout Western society with a rate of 22.3 births per 1000 15-19 year old women in the US in 2015 (Reproductive Health, 2017). It is clearly time for a change in sex

While parents would like their children to wait as long as possible to begin having sex, the reality is that teens are having sex much younger than many parents think. Some teens, or preteens, begin having sex or engaging in sexual behavior in junior high. By the time they are seniors in high school, an estimated 65 percent of teens have had sex, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007. (Dawn, 2009). Unfortunately, a percentage of those teens will become pregnant. After more than a decade and a half of decline (a 27 percent drop from 1991 to 2000), teen birth rates rose again in 2006, which was the last year for which data are available. It is still unclear on what caused teen birth rates to rise again, with supporters of abstinence-only sex education programs and contraception-based programs each blaming the other side for the increase. However, a 2007 study in the Journal of American Public Health attributed the trend in decreasing pregnancy rates to improved contraception use among teens during that time. (Anderson Orr, 2009).

Statistics from recent studies suggest that only 13% of U.S. teens have ever had sex by the age of 15. But by the age of 19, seven in ten teens of both sexes have had sex. Between 1995 and 2006-2008, the percentage of teens aged 15-17 who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse declined from 38% to 28%. Among teens aged 18-19, it declined from 68% in 1995 to 60% in 2006-2008. The pregnancy rate among young women has declined steadily from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in 1990 to 70 per 1,000 in 2005. However in 2006, the rate increased for the first time in more than a decade, rising to

The statistics on teen sex are staggering. According to Mrs. Seth, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, "Eighty-five percent of high school students, by the time they reach the twelfth grade, are

The United States has the highest teen birth rate in the world, every year the United States experiences 610,000 teen pregnancies (Bleakly 2006). The figures show that three in ten adolescent girls will become pregnant before the age of twenty. People ages 15-24 represent 25 eighteen 70 percent of United States females, and 62 percent of males have had sex. About 3.2 million adolescent females are infected with the most common STI’s, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea (Bleakly 2006). The likelihood of teens having sex increases with each school grade level, from 32 percent in ninth grade to 62 percent in 12th grade (Ito 2006). In 2012, a total of 305,388 babies were born to a group (Oglesby 2012). The United States teen birth rate is one and a half times higher than that in the UK, and more than twice as high as in Canada (Eisenberg 2007).

The teen pregnancy rate had decreased by the maximum of about 55 percent. Most teen birth rates had also gone down about 64 percent, but yet teen pregnancies and birth rate for teenagers ages 15-19 in the U.S still remains one of the highest comparable countries. Due to parenthood, most of teen moms drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate to get their diploma. Sexually active teens that don’t use any type of protection has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year, 84 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned.