Teenage pregnancy is a major concern in today's society; there are many ways to prevent teenage pregnancy, many decisions you will have to make, and many challenges you will face. Over recent years, it seems that all the efforts to fight teen pregnancy are beginning to pay off. Thanks to the continued dedication of our parents, teachers and community leaders, the young people today have more support and education concerning the dangers, consequences, and challenges of adolescent sex. We constantly ask the question of why, and what causes teens to disregard what they have been taught about sex and STD's and still engage in unprotected sex, and ultimately and unfortunately becoming another statistic. The statistics tell that the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy and births (teenpregnancy.org).
Currently at its lowest annual rate in over 20 years, teen pregnancies have declined 14 percent in this decade alone (teenpregnancy.org). But despite this recent downward trend, the issue still stands prominently and remains a critical concern to everyone. While these improving numbers are encouraging on the surface, the number of children having children of their own, remains higher than acceptable and progress must continue to be made. In 2000, more than one million teenage girls got pregnant and of those, 479,067 girls gave birth, that number is down almost 50,000 since 1990 (teenpregnancy.org). One in ten young women will get pregnant at least once before they turn twenty-one (teenpregnancy.org). For many of the 500,000, it was an unintended occurrence, usually the result of young men and women having unprotected sex while relying on misinformation (or none at all), poor planning, and failing to recognize the consequences that would arise from their actions. By the age of nineteen, eighty percent of teen have had sex a least on time (Teen Sex and Pregnancy). For some, however, it was an intentional decision - a decision based on unreliable emotions and unrealistic perceptions of parenthood.
