Consequences of Compulsory Teenage Pregnancy

When teenagers resort to abortion, fingers can be pointed at a lot of reasons the mother can justify with. Bearing a child will require a lot of responsibility that the mother, at a very young age, may not be ready to deal with. If the mother decides to take on the challenge of parenting, this is where forced motherhood comes in.

Forced motherhood can give way to negative consequences to the growth of the child. If parenthood is something that is felt as compulsory, this may bring about unlikely effects to the upbringing of the child and seriously affecting the child’s perspective in life in general.

Some of the unlikely costs when a mother is forced to bear the child may include emotional disadvantages to the child. More often than not, the child may always feel withdrawn, indifferent and aloof. The feeling of being unwanted may surface even at an early age, making the child feel like he or she has little worth to the family he or she was born to.

This low self-esteem and personal bearing may also affect a child’s academic performance. The child’s scholastic achievement may not be very satisfactorily and the will to do well may not be apparent. Being a low achiever may even encourage the child to engage with unpleasant demeanors. The child may consider dropping out of school, drug addiction, and alcohol abuse among others. It is not surprising that most children who are reported to be juvenile delinquents have parents who came across considering teenage abortion.

Other consequences of having to raise a seemingly unwanted child are the child’s possibility to procure criminal records. Because the parent is also believed to be incapable to raise the child, their children’s well-being are six times more likely to be receiving welfare and protection from agencies and institution when between the ages sixteen to twenty-one.

Gaps are also likely to come between parent-child relationships. Poor relationships may keep them both distant from each other and it is certain they will barely communicate with each other about their thoughts and feelings. This kind of relationship may result to either one of two things. This is the risk of having the child abused or having the child neglected by their parents. Either way, abuses or neglect by the parents may be synonymous to the child’s seeking of attention from another person or obsessing over a diversion that can fill in the hole and emptiness they are burdened with as an unwanted child.