Eng 106 Section H
January 29, 2009
Major Paper 1
Teenage Pregnancy
“One-third of girls in the US get pregnant at least once by the age of 20. Half of all pregnancies in the US have been unplanned, that’s about 3 million a year. Also 468, 988 babies are born to teenage mothers each year” (“The National Campaign”). This is why the United States needs to focus on teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy is a problem, and there are solutions on how to solve it.
Teenage and premarital sex is a growing dilemma on high school and college campuses as well as being one of the main concerns of parents, schools officials, and the government. It is on the rise, and they are concerned that it may get out of control. We need to help stop this before its too late. Teenage and premarital sex can be a problem because of the many diseases and pregnancies they can cause. Each year almost 750,000 teenage women between the ages of 15-19 become pregnant (Ventura). Also the pregnancy rate in this country is at its lowest level in 30 years, down 36% since its peak in 1990 (Ventura). Even though teen pregnancy has gone down, it is still a big problem in the United States. Out of those 750,000 teenage women that become pregnant each year, more than half of them decide to keep their babies and raise them (Ventura). Many of these mothers are not in any kind of situation suitable for nurturing a baby, which in result attributes to the overall problem.
“Thou shalt not” and “just say no” have been successful in the 1950’s and early 60’s in preventing people of any age from sexual activity, but we are in a new generation. Teenage sex is by far not a new phenomenon. Over the last 20 years or so, the growing problem of sexually transmitted diseases has become enormous. With the onset of such a major problem that continues to plague our society it is imperative that as a community and as a society that we begin to educate and support our teens with resources to...