You have to ask yourself: .
"I know that I'm about to give birth to a baby that I can't afford, but what options do I have beside abortion?".
Today the abortion rates are at 40% and in order to lower this percentage, welfare is a necessity. Most people have the tendency to think that the teenage mother will use the welfare benefits all for herself and the baby will never benefit from it, and while in some cases this is true, its unfair for the babies and struggling teenage parents to miss out on welfare when they really deserve it. This is why I think that unwed teen mothers should recieve some type of benefits just as any other mother on welfare. For the unwed teen mothers there are welfare based programs to assist in raising and taking care of their children, but they do have to do some work in order to recieve the benifits.
A program that originated in Ohio called LEAP, (Learning, Earning And Parenting), encourages teen mothers not to abort their child, put their child up for adoption, or drop out of high school. Learning, Earning, and Parenting is a mandatory statewide program of financial incentives to encourage young mothers on welfare to enroll in school and attend regularly. Mothers who do so receive a $62 bonus in their monthly welfare grant; those who fail to enroll or show poor attendance have their grants reduced by $62 per month. Program participants receive case management services as well as transportation and child care assistance. Some participants in Cleveland also receive enhanced services via schools or community-based service. About 64% of teen mothers graduated from high school or earned a GED within 2 years after they would have graduated because of LEAP. On the other hand, the failure to take advantage of the LEAP program could limit the mother's employment options and increase the chances that she and her family will be poor. They might put off finishing high school, putting them at greater risk of being put into low paying jobs or of facing prolonged unemployment, poverty, and welfare.
