Teen Pregnancy: A Personal Journey

In 2011, I became an aunt to an amazing little girl. My sister was just sixteen years old when she found out she was pregnant, a junior in high school. She was already into her second trimester and it was too late for her to even think about aborting the pregnancy. So her decision to keep the baby was the only decision she could make. She had my niece and struggled to finish her senior year in high school. It took special privileges and her taking classes outside the school for her to graduate with her class. She knew that her whole life was going to change the moment she decided to have the baby. There were ten other girls in her grade that got pregnant that year and six decided to abort their pregnancies, four decided to have their babies.

In an article by choices pregnancy care center, “Reports indicate that there are approximately 1 million teenagers in America that become pregnant each year. Seven out of ten teens have engaged in sexual intercourse by their 19th birthday. Teens have 18% of all the abortions the United States. 78% of teen pregnancies are unintended. Of all the teenage women that become pregnant, 35% choose to have an abortion rather than bear a child” (Choices). In a recent study of schools done by Guttmacher institute, “72% of U.S. public and private high schools taught pregnancy prevention; 76% taught abstinence as the most effective method to avoid pregnancy, HIV and other STDs; 61% taught about contraceptive efficacy; and 35% taught students how to correctly use a condom as part of required instruction. 60% of females and 55% of males are being taught about birth control and other forms contraceptives” (Guttmacher). Most girls believe taking a form of birth control such as the pill will prevent them from becoming pregnant but they are wrong. No contraceptive is 100% effective and there are even case of women getting pregnant with the highest form of birth control which is the IUD. Most boys believe that just because a girl is on a form of birth control that she cannot get pregnant but unfortunately, they are wrong, men still need to wear a form of protection to reduce the chance of pregnancy even more. Of the percentage of girls who get