Teen Pregnancy - Short Essay

Ana Bahena
Ms. Camacho
AP English Language and Composition
25 November 2010
Imagine that your daughter or son has just become a proud parent of a beautiful baby; now imagine this image being corrupted by the fact that your son or daughter is only fifteen years of age and is now part of a lifelong penalty. This unfortunate event known as teen pregnancy is being faced by many families all over the United States. Teen pregnancy is defined as a teenaged or underaged girl (usually within the ages of 13–19) becoming pregnant. Teen pregnancy causes a perpetual cycle of ignorance and poverty, as well as prolonging the lack of family and support from society for a productive life for both the parent and the child (Jeannie). With this in mind, both parents and educators should communicate with teenagers about the importance of abstinence and if they decide to go against those morals, they should practice safe sex by means of contraception.
Nowadays, teenagers are having children as if it were something ordinary disregarding the fact that they are carrying with them a human being who is to change their whole life and way of being. Every twenty-six seconds, a United States teenager becomes pregnant, every fifty-six seconds, another adolescent gives birth, and every hour, fifty-six children are born to teenagers. These facts are based on estimated figures from the United States Department of Health. In the United States more than sixty out of one-thousand teenage girls deliver a baby. Furthermore, four out of ten girls will have one or more babies before the age of twenty. This high increase in teen pregnancy results in economic problems and social controversy.
Many of the children born to teenage mothers end up with different types of problems that vary from physical disabilities to behavioral issues. The health problems that the children from these teen mothers face include infant death, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, hyperactivity disorder, and respiratory problems....