Teen Pregnancy New Mexico

Teen pregnancy is an issue in United States, it is one issue that should wait until teens are married and know what they are doing with their lives. This issue came about in the early in the 1950’s – 1960’s. Teen pregnancy is a teenage girl between the ages 13-19 (girls who haven’t reached adulthood) having unwanted or wanted babies. Janet Bode once stated in her book, “Emotions run everywhere, scared, sad, disappointment and preparation for what is about to happen” (Bode 51). If we do not act now, teen pregnancy will be out the roof. Teen pregnancy needs a stop put to it no matter what, teens are still children themselves and they are still learning how to take care of themselves:

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a study showed that in 2010, 51% of pregnancies in the state of Arizona were unintended; 23% of those pregnancies resulted in abortions. In the 2010, over half of all the pregnancies in the state of Arizona were an accident, or non-intended. The likelihood of those pregnancies were due to the lack of contraception use, misuse of contraception, and/or improper planning. Furthermore, those unintended pregnancies can have significant and negative consequences for women, their families and the economy in itself (2015, Guttmacher, Institute). The negative impact to the economy, is the increased burden on taxpayers due to the cost of the care of children placed in foster homes resulting from these unplanned

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.

Outcome: Contraceptive use among Hispanic teens is relatively low and almost one-half of sexually active teens do not use a condom, putting them at risk for sexually transmitted infections in addition to pregnancy. (Child Trends,

There is presently much controversy regarding teen pregnancy, considering that many countries in the developed world experience a rise in adolescent pregnancies in spite of the fact that effective programs are installed in these areas. Teen pregnancy has been a major issue in Los Angeles in the recent years, but the fact that state authorities have been actively involved in combating the problem has generated positive results. It is probable that the struggle for abstinence and the practice of safe sex have become less important for high school students in Los Angeles in the last few years, taking into account that teen pregnancy rates have gone up significantly.

Teen pregnancy is still a major issue regardless of the declining pregnancy rate. In 2006 birthrates among teenage girls age ranging from 15-17 were more than 3 times as high as

Despite teenage pregnancy rates dropping more than fifty percent in recent years, it is within the Hispanic community that teen pregnancy continues to remain a serious public and social issue. When compared to other ethnic sectors in the United States, Hispanic females continue to hold a higher birth rate than others, being twice more than that of non-Hispanics. In general, there are the many apparent obstacles and consequences when dealing with this situation. Young adult parents must overcome educational, financial, and emotional problems months before their child is born.

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.

New Mexico has made significant progress in reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy but the rate remains high among other states in the country. The National Bureau of Economic Research report suggests that the reason for high level of pregnancy rate among American teenagers is an economic context of income inequality. Teenage pregnancy has many social, health and economic consequences that inhibit women from realizing their full potentials. This challenge imposes economic burden on the state in the form of assistance program for single mothers and lost income due to low level skills. For example, in 2010 teenage mothers’ public and health care assistance programs cost the United States government nearly $10 billion including lost income from lower educational attainment and reduce wage among children born to teenage mothers. Studies show that teenage mothers tend to have less education and are poorer than their peers who are not teenage parents. This implies that teenage pregnancy has intergenerational effects that can be seen in the overall development index in the larger

Based on the readily available images broadcast from films, MTV and other mass media, one might assume that the teen pregnancy epidemic is on the rise. In one respect, this health risk condition has rarely been more culturally visible than it is right now. However, it does bear noting that teen pregnancy has actually been on the decline in the United States over the last two decades. According to the source provided by Sheets (2012), "from 1990 to 2008, the teen pregnancy rate decreased 42 percent (from 117 to 68 pregnancies per 1,000 teen girls)."

The teen birth rate in New Mexico has declined by 35 % over the last decade. However, New Mexico is the second highest teen pregnancy in the nation. Unintended pregnancies within our community of Las Cruces, NM have evolved into a public health issue within the Dona Ana County. The goal for the community of Las Cruces, NM is to build a public health program that will help reducing unintended pregnancies among teenagers. By establishing a prevention program, our purpose is to educate teenagers on the planning their pregnancies. This project will increase the number of desired and healthier babies.

The discussion of why El Paso. Texas has one of the highest teenage pregnancy is a challenging one. Is teenage pregnancy cause by lack of sex education, abstinence teaching or birth control accessibility. I believe that the answer to teenage pregnancy is a truly difficult subject to tackle, due to the many missing variables. Nevertheless, I think that the reason why El Paso, Texas has a high teenage pregnancy because of the disagreement between the education system and parent’s belief’s on when to teach young kids about their bodies.

How many pregnant teens have there been? Over the years more girls are becoming teen moms. In Oklahoma teen pregnancy has become a problem. Recently Oklahoma has had a pregnancy rate of 47.5% (Tulsa World). Not only is it an issue in Oklahoma but an issue in the United States as a whole. The lack of awareness and how to prevent pregnancy is a reason to blame for the increasing numbers. The more we don’t make people aware of the increasing teen pregnancy rate and how to prevent then the numbers will continue to rise into an astonishing amount. Helping teens know of the different ways to prevent pregnancy can make an enormous difference in teen pregnancy. The issues that have an effect on teen pregnancy rates have been to the use of

"Teen pregnancy in the United States: In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years old, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years. Still, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist (cdc.gov)." As teenagers (in the United States), we are peer pressured or tempted to try new things. Some teens tend to try out drugs, and alcohol. However, some are having unprotected sex in which, is leads to having babies. This is called, teenage pregnancy. This has caused the United States to create records based off of the statistics and facts given from, researchers across the United States. In order to help prevent teenage pregnancy in the United States, teenagers must understand why, having a baby now isn’t such a smart move on their part.

Teen pregnancy is a very controversial social issue and the vast majority of Americans consider the outrageous rate of teen pregnancies a severe issue, certainly a problematic occurrence that is believed to be a moral decline in our country. Teenagers are physiologically capable of reproducing but not emotionally or financially prepared to be parents at such a tender age. Through various research studies a plethora of determinants has pin pointed teens unprecedented pregnancies. One cause of this problem is the apparent indication of social separation or disadvantage. Within this issue you would find poverty, single parent households, educational disadvantages on the parents behalf, a lack family/parental support, and unemployment. A child’s educational performance, inappropriate sexual acts, and inferior apprehensions about their futures play a vital role in teen pregnancies as well. Amongst the listed disadvantages the three that take precedent are lacks of family communication, sexual abuse, and poverty. Furthermore, teen mothers do not fit the ideal ideology of the normative scheduling of motherhood, therefore, ultimately resulting in negative consequences for them and society. What needs to be understood is, as to why the numbers of teens are becoming parents at such a vernal age.