Teen Pregnancy Statistics Continue To Rise

Despite sex education in schools and all the ads for birth control pills and condoms, teenage pregnancies continue to be a problem. In fact, teen pregnancy statistics are rising more than they ever have before. Is there a way to stop these teen pregnancy statistics from rising? Can we reverse our societal trend of babies having babies? We can but first we’re going to have to realize that teens are under a lot of pressure. Suddenly their bodies are changing, their hormones are raging and cliques and image become so very important. Sex, too, is important. It’s likely that every teen knows which one of his classmates have had sex and which ones haven’t. Some of these may be made up stories but sex is very much a discussion topic among many teens. Without education, however, these teens will continue to experiment with sex and the teen pregnancy statistics will continue to escalate out of control.

Peer Pressure

Many parents are afraid to talk to their teens about sex and birth control and about the rising trend in teen pregnancy statistics. They figure if they hold off on the talk as long as possible, there’s a chance the teen won’t even think about sex. You should know, however, that teens think about sex…a lot. With or without the talk, your teen is going to be exposed to sex via the TV, movies, magazines, books, and even their peers. In fact, the teen pregnancy statistics may be affected largely by peer pressure. If you’re not having sex in some teen social circles, you’re seen as weird or out of the ordinary. Therefore, teens have sex to appease their peers and to cross some sort of imaginary threshold that puts them into the ‘not a virgin anymore’ category. Unfortunately birth control is rarely a part of this teenage initiation practice.

Temptation

When two people, teenage or adult, are engaged in activities that lead up to sex, the desire and temptation become very great. If there is no birth control available, it can be very tempting to just go ahead without it. There’s something about sex on the brain that clouds rational and logical thinking. However, sometimes birth control is available and the people still have sex without it either because they think it feels better or they don’t want to kill the moment by preparing said birth control method.

Education

By examining the rise in teenage pregnancy statistics, and knowing that they are constantly exposed to peer pressure and temptation, having birth control available to them may not be enough to curb the rise in teen pregnancy. Education is the only way. As a society, we need to teach our teens that pregnancy is a very permanent thing. A baby is a huge commitment and not one to be taken lightly. By educating our teens and teaching them to make smart and wise decisions, hopefully we can curb this trend of rising teen pregnancy statistics.

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