Teen Pregnancy Rates in the US

Comparing to nations such as Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada and Britain, the USA has the highest rate in teenage pregnancy in the Western World. Yearly, there are approximately 560,000 teenage girls in the USA who gets pregnant.

Of these, 95% are unintended leading to 1/3 ending in abortions and 1/3 in spontaneous miscarriage. The rest will continue the pregnancy term and keep the baby. More than half of these teens are younger than age 17 during their first pregnancy. Less than 25 percent of births to teens occur within wedlock.

As per statistics, 24% of girls and 27% of boys in the USA have become sexually active before 15 years of age. That leads to 66% of unmarried teens having sex by the age of 19. By age 20, 77% of women and 85% of men are sexually active.

The following are the possible reasons for such early pregnancy:

• Birth control is not being taught in sex education classes
• The topic is not discussed at home by the parents
• Teens are not given access to information on pregnancy risks

Teenagers should be educated about contraception for them to use it when they begin to have sex. Other countries who educate their teens about this are rewarded with low rates of adolescent pregnancy.

There are states and localities that have support programs for teenage parents. This helps teenage fathers and mothers adjust to new responsibilities. Programs like Women, Infants and Children (WIC) makes sure that teenage parents have available support to take care of their baby. This includes access to pediatricians and baby food and formula. Programs are offered in local hospitals too to teach young parents all that they need to know about taking care of an infant.

USA will continue to have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the western world until it effectively finds a way on giving teenagers access to birth control. With this, teenage pregnancies will be lessened as evidenced by other countries that have liberal birth control awareness system in place.