Evidence of teen pregnacy rates in our country today are so widespread that we have no choice but to notice it. Ever since 1991, the pregnancy rate of teens have fallen, but a significantly high number of teenagers still have unintended, accidental, and often unwanted pregnancies. In 1996, more than one million American teens became pregnant but only a little more than half a million of these teens gave birth. Most of these adolescents were unmarried, and many were not ready for the responsibilities and demands of parenthood. Now in 2003, the same number of teens are getting pregnant, but more than 78% of the pregnancies are accidental. These type of pregnancies lead to hardship, which usually ends in either the teenage parent dropping out of high school, the child being put up for adoption, or the child being aborted. And a good share of these new mothers do indeed let their pregnancy shorten their schooling, narrow their personal development, and increase the likelihood of a future that they will be poor and dependent on welfare. Today according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, (a private, effort launched in 1996,) the vast majority of unmarried teen mothers choose to either abort or keep their children rather than put them up for adoption.
At a planned parenthood website, a link was found where reseachers had taken a survery of why teenagers chose to abort rather than keep their child, and the top three (3) results were:.
(3) The teenage parent felt that a child would chang their life.
(2) The teenage parent felt that they were not mature enough to have a child.
And the number (1) one reason why the teenage parents felt they had to abort their child is because they feared they would have future financial problems. Is inadequate funding really a reason to end an innocent life before it even has the chance to begin? In order to answer this question you either have to be a teenage parent yourself, or be willing to have an open mind and put yourself in the teen parents shoes.
