Next Generation

Baby’s Baby Boomers - Teen pregnancy on the incline is growing trend.

It has been some time now that the “Baby Boom” generation has been conceived; most of this four hundred thousand plus generation will be retiring within the next few years. But what of the new baby boomers? A rise in teen pregnancy after a 15 year decline has the attention of some of the nations brightest minds.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics pregnancy in teens was on a steady decline for 15 years before a dramatic three to five percent national rise in 2006/2007. Although this may not seem like a big increase the numbers translate to about three in every ten teenage girls becoming pregnant at least once before they are twenty years of age. Repeat pregnancies may account for as much as twenty percent in some parts of the country.[ NCHS] The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy claims that babies born to teens in 2004 will cost taxpayers 9.1 billion dollars over time. This figure includes increased costs to public assistance, public sector health care, child welfare and state prisons and lower taxes paid by teen parents and their children over their lifetimes. Although the difference of birth rate varies for different ethnicities the NCHS rules out race as a potential factor in national birth rate.
The causes for such increases over the past two years range widely in theories widely from restriction of funding for certain types of sexual education, to religious background and belief, even personal need to feel accepted in society by older peers. But most of the data collected by various organizations points mostly to the fact that no highly effective sex education or HIV prevention education program is eligible for federal funding because mandates prohibit educating teenagers about the benefits of condoms and contraception. [American Foundation for Aids Research] The government will only allow funding for sexual education programs that teach abstinence until marriage which, according to the researchers at Columbia University “virginity pledge programs increase pledge-takers’ risk for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy”. The study concluded that 88 percent of pledge-takers initiated sex prior to marriage even though some delayed sex for a while. Rates of sexually transmitted infections among pledge takers and non-pledge takers were similar, even though pledge-takers initiated sex later. Pledge-takers were less likely to seek STI testing and less likely to use contraception when they did have sex”. [Bruckner H., Bearman P]
Another cause to this new age baby boom sensation is the growing amount of support and acceptance for teenage mothers in society. As if they have done something they should be rewarded for, as if getting pregnant before marriage or even before they are allowed to vote is some sort of good deed. As unsettling as this may be it is true and maybe confusing for teenage girls. When teenage girls see celebrities that star on kid network television channels like Jamie Lynn Spears get pregnant and then pregnant again four months after the delivery of her first child they may be getting mixed signals. Or when seventeen year old Mackenzie McCollum was benched from her high school volley ball team until cleared via doctors note because she had gotten pregnant and her mother filed four suits against the athletic committee because they do not require doctor notation for none-pregnant student athletes. The mother Barbra Horton (note last names of mother and daughter) has been quoted saying “My goal is for them to change their policies to include pregnant athletes” and “to nurture pregnant athletes, and to make sure that these athletes are successful”. [Hatch] I think I make my point. What is the country coming to when we almost reward our children for doing something that is simply irresponsible?
Concluding the main cause of birth increase in teenagers is the lack of knowledge about contraception and condoms and that new norm in society when everyone is a winner despite how much they are failing. The teens are less informed about “safe sex” and more informed about being morally correct and given basically two options; be abstinent until someone will tell them the truth, Or learn on their own. And that is mostly the problem, we have to many young explorers taking adventures with no navigation system and unfortunately they don’t realize how far off they really are until they get a flat. Unfortunately the government doesn’t only have difficulty with the problems of the future but apparently are unable to read well documented statistics. In one recent study 94 percent of adults and 93 percent of parents said that sex education should cover contraception. Only 15 percent of Americans wanted abstinence-only education taught in the classroom. [National Public Radio et al] It just makes more sense to educate instead of attempting to refrain.
Having a baby is not the only repercussion that will come of teenage pregnancies. Each year these babies cost the tax payers over nine billion dollars. Most teenage parents can not afford a child because they are simply children themselves. Eighty percent of teenage mothers end up on welfare. Most teenage mothers do not finish high school. Only one third of them will finish high school and only one and one half percent will obtain a college degree by age 30. Children birthed by teenage mothers are more likely to do poorly in school and be abused or neglected, boys are thirteen percent more likely to end up in prison while girls are twenty-two percent more likely to become teenage mothers themselves. [NCHS] And so on this cycle will continue unless the education system explains the “rules and regulations” of sex, in place of telling kids just not to do it. And maybe a slap or two in the back of the head when they make a mistake instead of this positive reinforcement for negative action kick that America has been on. If society would just tell the youth to stop screwing up they might just listen.


Sources
National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Births: Final Data for 2006, January 2009. Web. Dec.5.2009

National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Births: Final Data for 2006, January 2009; National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing, 2006.Web.Dec.5.20009

American Foundation for AIDS Research. Assessing the Efficacy of Abstinence-Only Programs for HIV Prevention among Young People. [Issue Brief, no. 2] Washington, DC: Author, 2005. Web. Dec.5.2009

Brückner H, Bearman P. After the promise: the STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges. Journal of Adolescent Health 2005; 36:271-278.

Brückner H, Bearman P. Promising the future: virginity pledges and first intercourse. American Journal of Sociology 2001; 106(4):859-912.

National Public Radio et al. Sex Education in America: NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser, 2004. Web.Dec.5.2009

Hatch, Amy. Teen Athlete Claims She was Benched for Pregnancy. Parentdish.com. Dec8th2009. Web.dec.10.2009

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